The Dark Esquire - Situation

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week:

‘Situation’  by The Dark Esquire (CFCF remix)

He, it is a funny thing, I loved all the remixes by CFCF last year. They were really good, and then came the album, and for some reason it never really grasped me. This though is another beauty. It is less disco and less dancey than what you might have seen from him next year, and the overall vibe is a bit more in line with his album. But he really turns up the atmosphere on this one. I also really love the vocals here, and how yearning they are, but also how they are not belting over everything and everyone but how it stays within the melancholic framework. Yeah, lovely late night music for insomniacs really, and oh boy do those people need some good music like this. You gotta love the restraint CFCF shows on this one.

http://hypem.com/track/1027215/The+Dark+Esquire+-+Situation+Cfcf+remix+

‘Fences’ by Phoenix (Delphic remix)

Oh boy, you know, those two are perhaps two of the hottest names out there, and I don’t like them. I can bare that Holy Ghost! remix of Phoenix because I love Holy Ghost!, but there is something about that voice that just doesn’t do the trick for me. Which is highly personal seeing them selling out everything and everywhere, but with the vocals so prominently at the start, it just immediately sets the wrong tone for me. I do like what happens underneath those vocals, courtesy of Delphic, and I do think they have some very neat tricks up their sleeve here which makes me rethink checking more of their work (saw them live and since have failed to bother). But I like what they are doing with this track, for me personally it is just the wrong track, and therefore the wrong remix. Regardless of the track by the way, it should’ve been cut in half this one, seven minutes is a bit stretching it. I have no idea how the last part relates to the first.

http://hypem.com/track/1031581/Phoenix+-+Fences+Delphic+Remix+

‘O.N.E.’ by Yeasayer

I actually like some of the tracks on this album, but this new single just isn’t my thing at all. I don’t know who of them is singing it, but it comes across as slightly whiney to me. It is mid-paced, and five minutes long, and musically they try to do some nifty stuff, but it doesn’t hit me on a gut level (I wish I could hit him on a gut level is what all the Annie Hall watchers who like Yeasayer are thinking right now, am I right?). I like the extra vocals at the very end of the song, but that’s about it. And I keep hearing “Hold me like a phone”, which always makes me go “eh?” to then realize, oh no, wait, that’s not right, never mind.

http://hypem.com/track/1030432/Yeasayer+-+O+N+E+

‘The Eyes of Mars’ by Franz Ferdinand feat. Marion Cotillard

I like this sort of genre bending and goofing around. Another actress who can sing, and she can strut her stuff in the first part of the song, which is nice and slow and piano led. And then the lads from Franz Ferdinand build it up to a rocky, signature song. Perhaps Cotillard does not have quite the voice for that part, and when she has to hold a note long it perhaps sounds a bit too fragile in contrast with those guitars. Which doesn’t mean she can’t sing — she can — it only means that at some moments the voice does not mix perfectly with the rock sound the Scotsmen produce. Nevertheless it is fun to hear a band like that with someone from the world of arts to produce something fairly interesting and reasonably entertaining for a period of time.

http://hypem.com/track/1026030/Franz+Ferdinand+-+The+Eyes+Of+Mars+feat+Marion+Cotillard+

‘Never Known Love’ by Thieves Like Us

It doesn’t feel that long ago since they released Play to be honest, that might just be me having a wrong sense of time though. But since that came out rather delayed I believe it is no wonder Thieves Like Us gives it another go so quickly. It actually seems a bit different than what I’m used to from these guys, perhaps less dancey than I remember them, a bit more gazey. They were always a band for after 4AM though (PM? At night I mean, darn it, that’s elementary education for ya ey.). I actually like how this track dawdles along, though perhaps it is a bit too much on the background for its own good. Maybe it’s just me writing this on the commute which has me thinking of other things (Hello, nurse!), but again, Thieves Like Us has always been a I’m-walking-at-home-in-the-night-with-a-barely-lit-sky kind of band for me.

http://hypem.com/track/1031348/Thieves+Like+Us+-+Never+Known+Love

‘Marchin’ In’ by Lo-Fi-Fnk

Well, haven’t they discarded the cheery synth-pop for a different look. The happy, gaily vibe of ‘City’ and ‘Louder’ have been replaced for this one, so you might like it even if you weren’t so keen on the band at first and vice versa. That’s always what you get when you try a new thing, no? It is a bit deeper, as in, the beat, it sounds deeper, a bit heavier. Luckily the vocals make it not like an awfully serious deep house attempt or anything (I mean, lets not change scenes completely here, ey?), so there is still a catchy streak to this one. It is not synth-pop like anymore though, lot less pop, steered away from Cut Copy a bit. But I really like this track. I was a bit hesitant on first listen, but now the catchiness has come through and I can see me dancing on this, and I think it is put together rather nicely. I interviewed the lads like December 2008 or something, where they said they were halfway, and it seems they are now real close to piecing the album together, and this is encouraging to hear. Not sure where the aquatic clip comes in though.

http://hypem.com/track/1032801/Lo+Fi+Fnk+-+Marchin+In

2004 got 99 problems but this (comically cut) video ain’t one of them.

These, however, are… It may have been a respite between Coldplay albums, but this particular year still has a lot to answer for. Three of the decade’s top ten best selling albums for a start – Scissor Sisters’ self-titled debut, Hopes and Fears by Keane and James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam (our misfortune was Cockney rhyming slang’s boon). Then there was Snow Patrol’s Final Straw (if only), Razorlight’s Up All Night (now available from Amazon’s used section for 14p) and a new U2 effort, How to Dismantle a Tax Bill or something. Those with hearing envied the deaf.

Elsewhere, these 12 months saw the launch of both The X Factor and the Pirate Bay website. Now ask yourself: which has done more to harm the music industry?

Oh, and John Peel died. Did these 366 days –– it was a leap year, I checked – get anything right?

In the press, the year began with a shotgun wedding – Britney Spears got hitched for two days in January, seemingly marketing for ubiquitous single ‘Toxic’ – and ended with an album 37-years-in-the-making – Brian Wilson’s Smile – taking a Stannah Stairlift to the top of the ‘best of’ polls. Yawn.

Reading between the lines, Wired magazine had a better idea of what was going on – 2004 was the year that “the Internet” became “the internet” in its style guide, perhaps symbolic of how it had become so ordinary.

Speaking of lower case ‘i’s, Apple set up the UK iTunes Music Store, shifting some 450,000 units in its first week. Now anyone can access an almost infinite amount of music, making 2004 the last time I read more about music than actually listened to it. Suddenly, this here guff I’m spouting mattered a whole lot less. Are you still with me?

If you could forgive those big sellers, 2004 was also the year that some of the decade’s real players began to emerge. TV on the Radio gave us debut Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.

And future stadium fillers Dizzee Rascal and Kings of Leon released not-so-difficult sophomore efforts.

KanYe West came out from behind the mixing desk with The College Dropout. Not that his role as go-to producer was vacant for long – a certain Danger Mouse soon filled the post.

KanYe gets his mouth wired shut (insert “jackass” gag here):

The unremembered ‘80s got remembered. Debuts from Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and The Futureheads, and Bloc Party’s early singles had the NME subs desk wondering if anyone would notice if they stuck another “new” at the front of “new-wave”. And while the post-punk era was enjoying a second wind, the kind of three-chord punk that was supposed to have killed off prog in the first place, was bashed into the shape of a concept album by Green Day. It all got a bit confusing.

Devendra Banhart caused a scene, peddling a song about bestiality that would later find its way into a mobile phone advert. And Sufjan Stevens put his tour of American states on hold to make Christian rock sound like a good idea.

Also worth checking: Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins, Ten by cLOUDDEAD, American Whip by Joy Zipper, Homesongs by Adem, Real Gone by Tom Waits, Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron & Wine, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Leviathan by Mastodon, Inches by Les Savy Fav, Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan Band, Louden Up Now by !!!, Sung Tongs by Animal Collective, Antics by Interpol, Madvilliany by Madvillian and Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse to name but a few. Phew.

Oh, and the vastly overrated The Streets did an album slightly worse than the last one.

A Coxon-less Blur went on hiatus, Orbital went their separate ways and Jay-Z retired. I think you’ve spotted the pattern here. Also, the Beta Band disbanded, only for all but one of them to join The Aliens – like, take a hint, mate.

Meanwhile, the Pixies made a triumphant (and probably quite lucrative) live return, setting the ball rolling for a whole bunch of other former bands to put aside their creative differences for one last pay cheque.

The world was shrinking fast, but there was still a time lag, hence American website Pitchfork’s 2004 album of the year – Funeral by Arcade Fire, not released until the following February in Europe – only offered a taste of things to come for the UK. Five years on, the weirdest thing is how long it took us to catch up.

Album of the year: The Grey Album by Danger Mouse

What was supposed to be an in-joke for a few mates became an EMI-baiting internet phenomenon. By splicing together The Beatles’ White Album with a capella versions of Jay-Z’s Black Album, one Brian Burton brought the whole bootlegging mash-up thing to its logical conclusion – and set himself up as the knob-twiddler of the moment. Best of all, it was free.

Read more:
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009

Pink Skull

And we’ve been hitting the blogs again this week, to bring you some hot tips. They go a little like this…

Track of the week:

‘Chicken Dream Inside Egg’ by Pink Skull

Oh don’t get me started on the name of this track now. And they have the tendency to do such things as well! Oh dear… The puns, can you imagine the puns one could make if this track would be horrible? Anyway, it isn’t, so there goes that. Actually, this seven minute track is fabulous. Or well, at least the first six minutes, no idea what they were on when they added that last bit, though I can imagine it was the inspiration for the title. The rest is a delight though. Very danceable. That bass is ridiculous really. Sometimes they hold it back, and then they come back even more powerful (or perhaps it just seems that way because they held it back for a moment). Whichever way it is, it is really a nice track. They also add other sounds to the mixture during the course of the song, like a bit of vocal work even, but the bass is the main ingredient, and it’s a fun one it is.

http://hypem.com/track/953485/Pink+Skull+-+Chicken+Dream+Inside+Egg

‘I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet’ by The Field (Gold Panda remix)

Structured and flowing soundscapes is more The Field’s thing, and random noises more Gold Panda’s I guess. At least, I cannot seem to remember that the original sounded so fragmented and cut up. The heartbeat is nice though, that is really something which adds a certain vibe to the song. Perhaps it is just my personal preference to smooth running tracks which make this remix sound a bit off. Because for all the interesting noises and sounds added to the track and the imagery and feelings they evoke, it to me bops along. If you like that sort of thing and are into the melting of all kinds of different sounds in order to evoke a certain imagery, then this remix probably is one you want to listen to, as I can see and admire what Gold Panda does. I just don’t happen to particularly like it. Well the idea behind it I do like, the track itself does not scream “put me on repeat” to me.

http://hypem.com/track/960802/The+Field+-+I+Have+The+Moon+You+Have+The+Internet+Gold+Panda+Remix+

‘Future Breeds’ by Hot Hot Heat

I remember liking several tracks of these guys actually. This track certainly does not incorporate and build on the qualities I liked in previous tracks. And if it does then surely it is rather well hidden. The voice is a mixture of singing and reciting, just like the music is a rather curious mix of not being fast enough to be interesting and not having a structure which incites it. Perhaps the band wanted to add some gravitas by at one point stripping the instruments so you just hear the main vocals recite one thing or another, but since the first three quarters of the track did not keep my interest I will probably never know what he is banging on about during that point in the song. I’ll just try and find ’5 times out of 100′, that was at least dance inducing, no?

http://hypem.com/track/955314/Hot+Hot+Heat+-+Future+Breeds

‘Live Alone’ by Franz Ferdinand (Delorean remix)

Gosh, I do like the output from these Spaniards. And from the Scottish contingent of this song as well, but me liking Franz Ferdinand is nothing new (to me at least). But Delorean is a new one to me this year, and their tracks seemed very nice when I listened to their Ayrton Senna EP. Here they take on the disco ‘Live Alone’ track made by Franz Ferdinand, and they do put their stamp on it I say. Even the vocals are barely recognizable and made to fit the dreamy, twirling track Delorean has made out of it. Bit of a it’s-after-3AM-and-it’s-summer-and-I-am-dancing-at-an-outdoors-festival kind of thingy. That is what it provokes to me at least. Eyes closed and twirl, that is what it says to me. So all together quite a different tone from the original Franz track, then again, that is the idea of a remix I guess. And they succeed in that very nicely.

http://hypem.com/track/960624/Franz+Ferdinand+-+Live+Alone+Delorean+Remix+

‘Youthless’ by MillionYoung

Okay, the voice, not my thing really. Even in the short running time of the song I can safely conclude that. So not terribly excellent I guess. I like the piano, but with the song running only 2 ½ minutes the track does not have the punch that a short song like this needs in order to be memorable. And it fades out as well, which has me thinking that I possibly have an incomplete track. But that is not the case, I guess, I think, well…

http://hypem.com/track/961531/MillionYoung-to+review%2C+Youthless

‘Catch Me Baby’ by Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is one of the bigger works by Milton. It also apparently is the name of a party in Australia, and this crew also edits disco tunes. This track is one of those edits. To be honest, I’m not so sure about this one. It is disco with that soul voice and the “Catch me on the rebound, baby” line evokes a classic disco vibe. But it seems as if it is playing too fast. As if they cranked up the BPM significantly. Whether they did it or the original is played this way I have no idea, but in any case I do not particularly care for it. The vibe it evokes to me is that they’re rushing through it, which is not really a feeling you want to evoke, is it?

http://hypem.com/track/953484/Paradise+Lost+-+Catch+Me+Baby

After discussing our favourite gigs of 2009 so far, we’ve gotten all nostalgic and decided to reminisce about the first gigs we attended. We’ve been completely honest about it as well – possibly to our detriment. Get the violins out…

Jethro Tull

JANE WHYATT

Jethro Tull, Bristol Colston Hall, 1974

It was my first week at university and my first live concert, but actually I was a bit underwhelmed. I liked the album Aqualung, mainly because my boyfriend played it very loud (on vinyl, on his new stereo) when his parents were in the house and we were upstairs in his bedroom having other kinds of fun! Hearing it fill the Colston Hall, watching him really getting into the music and totally ignoring me was a frustrating experience. Ian Anderson frolicked around the stage with his flute, floppy long hair and velvet trousers. His voice sounded thinner and more whining than it does on the album. We all knew all the words, so we sing along and left the gig feeling hoarse and drained as though we’d been to a football match that ended in a goalless draw.

The Quireboys

MATT POACHER

The Quireboys, Hammersmith Odeon, 1991

My first ever gig was The Quireboys at the Hammersmith Odeon in, I think, 1991. They were a bar-room band that played sore-throated raucous blues, ripped wholeheartedly from the flayed corpse of the Stones and Humble Pie. The band were at least a six piece as I remember, but they were led by Spike and Guy Griffin – two craggy waifs who wore bandanas, rank eye make-up and cowboy boots, and traded in a kind of social club sleaze. They’d just released A Little Bit Of What You Fancy and were creating something of a stir.

I was only 16 and turned up in a hideous flowery shirt, a sin in itself, only compounded by the fact that I then went and bought a band t-shirt and put it on. What I can recall is minimal: tyre-waisted rock hags screaming at Spike, equally ragged men, all creased skin and sun-bleached bandanas. And my dumb mate and me standing at the entrance to one of the stairwells on the balcony and jumping up and down a lot. Even from this critical distance I’m annoying myself.

Glastonbury 1995

ALEXANDER TUDOR

Glastonbury 1995

In 1995, I scammed my school out of a travel grant to attend the “Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts” (and even managed to win a small prize for my first piece of music journalism). Technically, the first band I ever saw live were akshly kinda hip and Wire/Plan B-friendly: The Boredoms. Mind-blowing stuff: Eye leapt off the drumkits (plural) repeatedly, and the music seemed to spiral in front of us. There was a place, away from the stage, where the compression-waves from the bass-bins met and made you feel like your bones had turned to jelly. I was still young enough to be intimidated by “weird music” but I loved every minute of The Boredoms. Otherwise, G’bury ’95 was very Britpop, with a distinct sense of history being made, unlike (say) Spike Island, by all accounts. Oasis debuted most of Morning Glory (cue: stampedes where people were trampled), and Pulp reached their apotheosis (genuinely epiphanous; the spacecraft landed, as Jarvis sang; you could feel how magical it was for them to be here after so many years; ‘Common People’ was destined to be an anthem forever). The Verve were dull… not half as fun as Menswe@r, although neither looked set to last. During The Cure’s set, some girls shared their whisky and weed with us, with the result that (later on) the USS Enterprise seemed to be coming out of the screen at the open-air cinema.

It wasn’t until autumn ’95 that I saw my first proper gig – Garbage at Brixton Academy, and the next year (Lost Britpop greats) Subcircus at the Garage (first sticky-floored and dank indie gig). I knew I’d be getting home late from the latter, so I borrowed a masterkey, which meant I could sleep under a desk at school… all of which means that whenever I’m asked about my first gig, I tend to think of waking up at dawn, walking through the woods, and woozily meeting a deer that seemed to be a way of the universe saying “Hey! You’ve arrived”.

A1

NATALIE SHAW

A1, Birmingham NEC, the ’90s some time…

Well as it goes, my first gig (I think) was at the Birmingham NEC with my parents as a way-too-cool pre-tween. I’d been brought up on a musical diet of such delights as Craig McLaughlan, Mel and Kim, Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston (before I discovered Blur and Pulp), so it was no surprise that I was dragged kicking and screaming (not really – in fact not at all) to see a Pop A-List of the Year including, wait for it, A1 and Scooch. I have a feeling 3T may have played there too, maybe also 911 – they were so seminal that they merely fused into a conglomerate of Hermesetas Gold. Note how I’ve used more commas and brackets than usual; this is to make it read more like a stream-of-consciousness as opposed to a memory I’ve savoured in all of its gloriosity.*

*Of course if you ask me nicely, I’ll be able to provide you a setlist and tell you the middle-name of 911′s drummer. Oh, wait…

Nicky Wire of MSP

PAUL BROWN

Manic Street Preachers, Newcastle Arena, 1998

As a band who shaped my musical upbringing more than any other have so far, it’s quite fitting that my first gig happened to be the Manic Street Preachers in December 1998. It’s probably not a tour that will go down as a classic chapter in Manics history. They were touring This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours which, as much as I like it, isn’t their most thrilling of records, and it also saw Nicky’s brief, inexplicable, and ill-fated experiment with a skipping rope. As well as that, it was in Newcastle’s cavernous, echoey Metro Radio Arena (or Telewest Arena as it was then). But, in spite of the odds against it, the gig was an electrifying experience. Even now, some ten and a half years, and three stones later, I still get goosebumps whenever I hear live recordings of ‘You Love Us’ or ‘A Design For Life’, and it’s because of that night. It cemented my love for the Manics, and made sure that for better or worse, I’ll always be a hopeless fanboy.

Green Day

JOSEPH ROWAN

You may struggle to believe it now, but I was pretty uncool in my early teenage years. Hence this gig, which I attended as part of a friend’s birthday, and which what I believe was the second encore (it seemed to go on for ever, anyway) so that we could get a lift from his mum. Hardcore! But, seriously we had possibly the worst seats in the house, and I hardly recognised a single song, even the really famous ones. Thankfully, it was before Warning came out, so while we did get ‘Minority’ (I think), the set was weighted towards Nimrod, the only Green Day album I have ever owned. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, I don’t think this gig had any impact on my later muso-ing. I’ll leave that to Muse a few years later, with a girl who fancied me who turned out to be a lesbian. So uncool…

The Bluetones

CATHERINE WILSON

The Bluetones, Middlesbrough Town Hall, 1999

As a teenager, my musical taste was considered to be quite strange by my peers. Indie music wasn’t exactly fashionable back at the turn of the millennium, as the sexy Strokes hadn’t come to everyone’s attention just yet. Fair enough, I did have a mild Kula Shaker obsession, but if you weren’t listening to So Solid Crew at the time then you were classed as a tad odd. The thought of seeing music live hadn’t really crossed my mind until I spotted a billboard for The Bluetones, who did a good turn in jingly-jangly mid-90s Britpop, playing live at Middlesbrough Town Hall.

Maybe I should have known better, having just turned 14, but the first few notes of The Bluetones’ set shocked me: what’s stuck with me since is that I remember thinking they must have been miming (thanks, CD:UK) as opening track ‘Last Of The Great Navigators’ sounded just like it did on record. Singer Mark Morriss’ charm and aplomb combined with a raft of catchy singles made for a solid performance. Possibly not as cool as nailing The Sex Pistols at The Free Trade Hall for your first gig, but not half bad.

Franz Ferdinand

DAVE McBURNIE

Franz Ferdinand, Glasgow SECC, December 2004

Whenever I listen to Franz Ferdinand on record (which is, admittedly, now not very often) I come away with the feeling that the last 40 minutes of my life would have been much more enjoyable had it been live. Unfortunately, after several weeks of cajoling my parents and a road trip to Glasgow, I left ultimately disappointed that my theory had proven misguided. Their live show, to my 15-year-old mind, lacked any sense of departure from the album. The songs were played in a familiar order and lacked the extra energy that I had expected from seeing clips of other bands live.

This tour was in the wake of the eponymous, Mercury-winning debut album and perhaps this was the cause of my disappointment. I could theorise that perhaps the band lacked confidence in performing to such large crowds as a reason that there was little crowd interaction, possibly due to their startling rise to headlining status, however I feel this would be judging the band slightly harshly. What seems like a more likely cause is that the majority of the crowd seemed to lack knowledge of the majority of the album tracks, and as such they only ever seemed to enjoy the show when the radio friendly singles ‘Talk Me Out’ and ‘Matinee’ were played.

Perhaps the memories of more recent gigs have pushed the good memories of the night to the back of my mind, and as such have left me with an overly critical recollection of the gig. It certainly didn’t put me off wanting to see live music, and thus can’t have been as bad as some of the gigs I eventually saw; but I guess I just expected more from my first time.

Of Montreal

A continued conversation (first part here) with Jamey Huggins of the glamtastic American band, Of Montreal: this week read about the band’s almost overnight success in Europe, opening for Franz Ferdinand, and life on the Of Montreal tour bus.

MG: of Montreal just played over in Europe—how was the response different over there?

JH: Uh, well, it’s a weird thing, you know? Like, in England it’s such a hard thing to get an audience. And then suddenly, the last time we were there, or the time before this last time, we were really struggling for some press. And we played a show for like 200 people or something, did a couple of interviews, and then the last time we were there, we sold out this like 1,500 theatre and had to turn away like 300 people who were trying to get in. It was like overnight we were suddenly like legitimate in London after we’d been playing there for years at these really small clubs. And then like, the Franz Ferdinand concert, we opened for them and did that.

MG: How did that show go?

JH:  It was kind of a nightmare, actually. Nothing to do with them, you know, they’re absolutely great. They were really kind and everything, the band, but we had to go on in this really small space. And for of Montreal to do an opening set for anyone, it’s kind of tricky. So we played like six or seven songs, and we had a major technical meltdown where our in-ear monitoring died, so no one could hear what they were singing, we couldn’t hear each other. We fixed it after a couple of songs.  But still, it was great. And then we went to France and had a fantastic show in Paris. For some reason Paris loves the new of Montreal stuff. We sold more copies of Hissing Fauna and Skeletal Lamping in France than all of the rest of Europe combined.

MG: Why do you think that is?

JH: Well, I don’t know, the French like electro. And those records are very much, like, beat-driven. Um, but also I think we have a really great press team there. We just happened to get lucky with some really great, super enthusiastic, super influential people. And I guess, they told us this one story about this really popular TV host who has, like, several million viewers, and does this show, and apparently she made some little statement where she held up Hissing Fauna on her show and said “This is the best record of the year, and if everyone watching the show doesn’t go out and buy this tomorrow I’m gonna stab my hand with this…” She had like a knife, and was holding up the record with this knife, and was stressing how emphatic she was that France needed to listen to this strange American band.

MG: I guess it worked, then.

JH: Well, I’m sure that’s part of it. But it’s weird, cause in France, they play us on like regular radio, you know? More of like the Clear Channel rock station or something. So it’s like weirdly somehow more legitimate or something. They don’t have the sense that we’re like an indie band.

MG: So will there be more crazy costumes tonight? Any family members making cameos again?

JH: Yeah, you know, it’s always a revolving cast, depending on who can do it. I mean, if we had our way, we’d have them all every night. People have been kind of trading off, taking legs of the tour. So like we had Nina [Barnes, Kevin’s wife] in New York, and we even had Alabee [Kevin’s daughter] on stage.

MG: What did Alabee do?

JH: She danced, and sort of rode on her mother like a horse. Um, but we have David Barnes and his little troupe of, uh, performers. So I think there’s about five of them tonight. It’s kind of been shifting from night to night. He’s gotten really good at writing sort of little scenes. They’re kind of like one-act plays and provide something like a music video. I see it as they’re like mini videos for each song. Some of it’s like pre-planned, some of it’s live stuff. But in addition to that, uh, he’s taken to writing out like actual characters that reoccur and stuff. So, the last tour, it was a lot more, kind of like, theatrics, dancing around, and choreographed fights, stuff like that. But this time around he has like names for the characters and actual like acting teams and stuff. He’s been writing them on the bus and trying them on stage. Last night, they tried something I’d never seen before, where they had like a Christmas morning. So they had all these performers dressed up like little kids in pajamas and such, and they were all opening presents, but then inside one of the presents they rigged up a smoke machine. So like, three out of the four kids open their presents and there are gas masks, and they’re all excited about their gas masks, and they put them on, and the last kid opens his present and it just shoots out gas. Strange things like that. And tonight they won’t let us use it. Apparently this stupid Great White thing [a deadly nightclub fire caused by pyrotechnics at a concert in 2003], all smoke machines are illegal in every venue in this state. Which is ridiculous, because there’s no fire involved. So there will be no smoke tonight.

MG: Think there will be an extra crazy crowd tonight, being 4/20?

JH: I don’t even know what that is. I mean I know that people smoke pot at 4:20 in the afternoon or something. I don’t know, I hadn’t given it any thought.

MG: So what’s it like on the tour bus?

JH: It’s just like any other environment. Just certain times of the day it might be really wild, and everybody is hanging out. Just sort of doing what you do. And other times it’s like a tomb and all you can hear is some snoring.

MG: What are your thoughts on Kevin stripping at shows?

JH: Well that’s only happened once, and it was like three years ago. I think he’s outgrown his exhibitionist phase a little bit. And he’s actually been dressing a lot more masculinely. But he’s still wearing like a pink woman’s Indian kind of garb. But I think he’s grown into another phase.

MG: Who does your makeup before the show?

JH: Everybody does their own. I’ve gone away from it a little bit, from the sort of glammier stuff. Now it’s more like stage makeup.

Come back next week for the third and final part of our epic interview with the lovely Jamey.

Super Furry Animals

Over here at Muso’s Towers/Mansions/Palazio/Galleria, your Reviews/Features Editor is sitting on the edge of her chaise longue awaiting the Super Furries’ gig webcast. Novel, isn’t it? Yes, yes it is.

Gruff Rhys et al are premiering their new album Dark Days/Light Years by playing it live in its entirety to a virginal audience. And we (i.e. ‘I’) are (am) going to be offering you our (my) reactions to each of the tracks as they hit our (my) reflexes!

Said tracklist looks like this:

‘Crazy Naked Girls’
‘Mt’
‘Moped Eyes’
‘Inaugural Trams’
‘Inconvenience’
‘Cardiff In The Sun’
‘The Very Best Of Neil Diamond’
‘Helium Hearts’
‘White Socks/Flip Flops’
‘Where Do You Wanna Go?’
‘Lliwiau Llachar’
‘Pric’

Step aboard! We’ve nine minutes left and counting…

19.53: Where’s it going to be on the site? There’s two options. I’m fretting.

19.56: I’m excited again. Despite the last-minute nature of this liveblog/webcast (er, wibcog – sounds Welsh enough), it’ll hopefully be quite fun. And I am one to trust my reflex reactions… most of the time.

19.58 Oh no Internal Server Error has occured. OH NO.

20.00 I’ve got www.superfurry.com open on a laptop and a PC and in two brower windows on each. Still not happening. Shall I tell you a joke?

20.04 Am using Twitter to establish if what I’m viewing is in fact aforementioned webcast. It’s in split-screen. It may well be. I think it is.

20.06 Some well distorted guitars going on, ‘cept screen keeps freezing. Bums. So, you heard the one about Jade Goody?

20.08 Yes, you have. Oh that’s lucky. Anyway… there’s no, like, compereing. Compering? None of that at all. I haven’t really a clue what’s going on.

20.10 Some very SFA sounding e.brite. With something that sounds a little like a cowbell being shoved through terrible audio quality into my ears. Easing itself into something strangely Led Zep-sounding.

20.11 Couldn’t tell you what track this is but it’s turning out to be pretty multi-faceted. Going through sections of heavy distortion followed by schizosonic (new word?) guitar streams. Of course with some delightfully distant harmonies.

20.15 “switch your love…” – we think that’s what the refrain is. It’s a bit jazzy in’t it.

STILL 20.15 Is this in their living room, do you think?

20.17 Pretty sure we just heard a mobile phone ring. Tut tut. Um maybe we’re not watching the right thing. Oh my god I’ve been watching the trailer. Or something that wasn’t the webcast. FUCK.

20.19 Totally on the right page now. D’oh. Crystalline synth work, loads of facial hair. And even a little graphic telling us that we’re now listening to ‘Moped Eyes’. Oh well, missed the first two.

20.21 Well these harmonies are springy. Quite maudlin sounding though, by all accounts. They’re all looking ace though. Bit of tweed, some hairwear…

20.23 Totally just got interrupted by advert for portable doors. Maybe I made that up. I mean, portable doors? Like a portal to something? Narnia? SFA? Who? Anyway… it’s ‘Inaugural Trams’ now, the one with the Franz Ferdinand chap. Sounds a bit Neon Neon.

20.30 ‘Inconvenience’ was the sound of real music pissing on lad rock.

20.36 I’ve not given you much value for viewings. But I am tweeting from two accounts as I type. Follow @natalie_shaw and @musosguide for more fun. I think I’ve got epilepsy. ‘Cardiff In The Sun’ is playing now. Sounds very… digital. Thus far, that is.

20.38 Maybe if Arthur Lee was born in the ’80s he’d have sounded like this.

20.39 Loads of “sha la la”-ing. Down to elementals really, how do they make it sound so involved though? This is atmospheric. I’ve never been to Cardiff, have you?

20.41 Amazing sounds. Falsetto kicking in. Hysterical, euphoric, trippy – and that’s just me.

20.43 ‘Mountain’ is about to start. It just has. HAWAY… “here come the cavalry”. Insubstantial sounding, is this. Also – this is totally not live, is it? There’s a perfect five seconds between each of the offerings. Liars and cheats. I’ve been lied to. Who do I tell off?

20.46 Another lyric: “it was a big fucking mountain”. Just a snapshot. Too much of the old strings. But Cian on vocals! How unusual.

20.48 ‘Helium Hearts’ now. Shuffly. Straight-up. So much funk I thought I just spotted Prince. Turned out it was just my own reflection. Talking of which…

20.50 Some admirable work on the tambourine there. Their ear for a melody is unmistakeable. And can you believe it’s 13 years since Fuzzy Logic was released?

20.52 ‘White Socks/Flip Flops’ – the hook is from something else. What is it? This sounds like a fugue in parts, it’s lovely.

20.54 You know when lazies describe something as ‘Vintage Blahblah’? Well this is it. This song is flagship SFA. It’s really sunny. Delightful. Highlight thus far.

20.56 Oh it’s ‘Where Do You Wanna Go?’ and ‘Lliwiau Llachar’, apparently. Like a duo or something. Groove has continued from the last few in segue-like fashion and this sounds astoundingly psychedelic.

20.59 Unexpected quasi-a capella section. And now in Welsh. Hot hot hot.

21.01 Little step back: lacking in wow factor. Super Furries are instant for those that don’t delve, but the glory does come from repeated listens… so I’m after too much. And besides, am in head-flurry.

21.02 No no, correction. This one is wow. It just went Beatles and now it’s gone electro-pop. And now it’s ended. Breath=gone.

21.03 ‘Pric’. Oh no, the last one! Does this mean that the album’s over an hour long? Need more listens, for sure. Sounds like a bird got stuck in the Roland.

21.04 Dunno, is this just SFA-by-numbers? Or do all of their records sounds like this the first time if listened to by force-feed?

21.05 Too much jam.

21.06 Said jam has now whipped itself up into 2009′s Pink Floyd. I’m not happy.

21.07 Are there or are there not only so many things you can say to this much extension? Don’t answer.

END.

A full review will follow but for now, we’re feeling a bit dizzy and confused. Underimpressed, too. We liked
‘White Socks/Flip Flops’, ‘Cardiff In The Sun’ and ‘Lliwiau Llachar’ the most, though ‘Pric’ will be removed from our memories. At least for now.

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand‘s ‘No You Girls’ is out on April 6th 2009 and is the second single to be released from the Franz Ferdinand: Tonight record.

The Glasgow indie legends are following up the massive hit ’Ulysses’ with another slice of perfect art-pop.

Simply press play to see Alex Kapranos and co. doing what they do best – singing about birds.

Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls

Everyone should buy Heroes. This isn’t an end-of-review spoiler, or a statement that affirms the bringing together of musical heavyweights such as Rufus Wainwright and Elbow can only go well. The main reason to buy Heroes is War Child, the charity behind the record.

Wait! Keep reading! The music bit comes soon! But this is important too! You should know that 66% of people who die in conflict are children, and War Child is a 16-year-old attempt to help protect them. No guilt-tripping, honest, but that surely has to be the best reason you’ve heard this year for parting with a tenner.

So, to the music… Heroes pulls no punches from the off, starting out with Beck and a version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’. A mist of fuzz rock guitar and a familiar Hansen vocal suffice to prove that Beck doing Dylan sounds a lot more like Beck than Dylan. Roxy Music may be upset to find that Scissor Sisters have buggered up ‘Do The Strand’ beyond recognition. Shrill and soulless, it is what can only be termed the ‘Comfortably Numb’ effect, and leaves Roxy fans gasping for breath with insult.

Critics’ choice TV On The Radio make a good fist of disturbing Bowie’s old bones with an electronica-heavy version of the titular ‘Heroes’, which owes more to Talking Heads than the Thin White Duke, as per most of their output. On the plus side, Franz Ferdinand taking on the angular might of Blondie’s ‘Call Me’ is a wet dream for anyone who hoped for a world where the perfect artrock splice might occur. Alex Kapranos approaches the whole thing with the air of a man who knows camp becomes him, and it does.

Or there’s Peaches pulling on her Iggy Pop suit for a right rumpus with the unfeasibly filthy ‘Search And Destroy’, smearing her scent on it like a stray cat. The accomplishment of the album is, on balance, fair. It offers a great opportunity to hear some irrefutably interesting music, and that is what being a fan is about. But regardless of what it sounds like, there can be no argument against buying this record at this time. Do it for the kids.

Franz Ferdinand

Monday March 9, 2009

Alcohol-based death from the previous weekend aside, in I strut to the newly-emblazoned (gah) HMV London Apollo (or XY/YY Blah Blah Stage On Wheels). To a sea of hungry couples (for each others’ tongues, presumably), trigger-happy-with-their-pointy-right-index-finger-in-the-air-whilst-jumping-not-even-on-the-offbeat twunts and a couple of people who look like they might well pass the hypothetical ‘would you rather be stuck in a lift with this person or eat your own elbow‘ test nonetheless. And this is relevant.

I’ve never seen Franz Ferdinand live. In fact, I guess I’m what you’d call a casual fan. Wow, I admitted that early on. It didn’t quite click that their obsession with disco was their flagship thing.

But then I think that’s because it didn’t really come across on the records because there were so many other points of attraction – no lists, fill in the gaps yourselves. If Franz Ferdinand was stand-on-the-spot wiggle and You Could Have It So Much Better… situated itself somewhere between huddled up next to the fireplace and flung onto a massive stage with fifteen clones of every single instrument/member of the band, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand must be a lizard. A lizard? Yes, a lizard. Skulking in the corner, stealthily; shades atop effortless quiff, gazing nonchalantly.

Woah, pre-amble expiration filter has just imploded. So I am now connected with Franz Ferdinand. The disco influence is stood there like The Bee Gees behind a lectern in Congress and I’m accepting it, welcoming it, with every millimetre of my kaleidoscope-esque hangover. ‘Do You Want To’ is huge, it’s almost a mammoth set loose; ‘The Fallen’ is impenetratable. But – and there is a but – the impenetratability is, well, phlegmatic. I find the band’s appropriation of every single white space with a consumable riff a tad trite live. It’s too easy to breathe in and that probably makes me a massive cynic.

Gone are the contrasts; even the usually out of place ’40” fits in naturally among the altogether cleaner-sounding material from the third album and the way closer tunes from the second. ‘No You Girls’ only just stands out. It’s everything all at once, and it feels too convenient. The suspensions and dissonance are the connecting thread between everything, whereas on record, it’s what sets each man apart.

The development between Franz Ferdinand’s emergence and their current persona is huger than it is obvious, with even the two-in-one ‘Dark Of The Matinee’ sounding transparent. Or opaque, depending on how you look at it. They’ve got that intellectual sexiness down to the top layer, it’s just surprising that the foursome have chosen to party all night rather than add a bit of intrigue. I would qualify that with some elucidation on my mindset but I reckon it’s pretty applicable to the rest of the audience if their brains were at least 40 per cent in accordance with mine. At which stage I’ve probably gone too far…

Alex Kapranos is a showman, a truly hedonistic construct on stage, and it’s made the Franz Ferdinand back catalogue come alive tonight, at least me. Or rather be reborn. The once lonely libido-infused slinks have stagedived to the front, but taken the middle straight. Oh and hi HMV London Apollo – try turning the volume down a bit next time, yeah?

No time for portaloos

Another week, another load of festival news – like a massive delivery of portaloos or pear cider, I’d imagine.

We’re back on the UK trail this week with a whole host of bands being confirmed for the best British and Irish festivals.

I suppose we’d better start at the top and go straight to The Boss. Bruce Springsteen is officially losing his Glastonbury virginity, with organiser Emily Eavis gushing: “I’m knocked out that we’ve managed to get Bruce to play. It’s the icing on the cake of this year’s bill, which I’m sure will take everyone’s breath away when we announce the full details.” We’re holding out for an emphatic Sunday night closing performance from Blur, suited and booted a la 1992.

Scotland’s top festival, T in The Park, has announced a range of big headliners, including Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, The Specials, and The Manic Street Preachers. They join an already-stellar line-up that includes Blur, Kings of Leon, Elbow and The Killers – the indie hot 100, basically.

If you like your festivals with a bit more rave, then head to Clapham Common for 2009′s Get Loaded in the Park. Orbital, another recent reformation, are headlining the August Bank Holiday bash, and it’s their only London date so far this year.

We all know that UK festies are notoriously difficult to get to, but it seems all the more arduous when you have to take a ferry ride before you get your coveted wristband and warm tinnies. 2009′s Isle of Wight Festival is hosting an agreeable mix of rock and dance, with the latest attendees including The Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, Stereophonics, and Razorlight.

We presume the salty sea air will mean that J. Borrell TM can afford to leave some of his hair products at home and have more room in his suitcase for his lovely winkle-pickers.