We Are Augustines – by Julia Stryj

By Julia Stryj

May 10, 2012

When I first heard about We Are Augustines and their tough past as individuals and the struggle towards the end of their previous band Pela, I was instantly amazed by the band’s determination and passion. Their surprisingly uplifting – considering it deals with a lot of the bumps that were on singer Billy McCarthy’s road – debut album Rise Ye Sunken Ships is constantly being listened to. Driving through the never ending rain to Glasgow to see them on their first proper headline tour since the album’s release in the UK, I find out that the support band is on at 19:45. That means a relaxed dinner is replaced by a quick take away as I don’t want to miss My Goodness.

Before the guys from Seattle come on stage Beastie Boys are played through the sound system, an obvious tribute to MCA. As soon as My Goodness start playing it’s clear to see and hear why the two-piece are compared to The Black Keys. Singer and guitar player Joel Schneider and drummer Ethan Jacobsen are playing raw Blues Rock’n’Roll in an incredibly loud and controlled way, but it’s still a lot livelier than The Black Keys.

It is a very nice touch that We Are Augustines watch their support act from the back of the audience, and I wonder how much longer they will be able to do this with hardly anybody in the audience noticing or recognising them.

The sold out ABC is filling up, which is great considering the gig was initially planned for a smaller venue, before We Are Augustines walk on stage to their ‘Instrumental’ song. They get right into their set, which covers the whole album plus the song Rise Ye Sunken Ships. After the first two songs most of the audience is infected by the band’s passion and soon it isn’t only the choruses that they are singing back.

This seems to give the already highly charged Brooklyn band even more energy for every song, culminating in ‘Book of James’ that singer Billy McCarthy introduces as a happy song even though it deals with the suicide of his brother James. The audience is doing as they are told and sing and dance along to the incredibly powerful song.

Billy, who keeps saying that he does not want the gig to end, is visibly overwhelmed by the reaction they get from the audience. Before he plays a wonderful version of ‘East Los Angeles’ on his own he tells us that we should never give up on anything we are passionate about referring to Eric and him having played for 10 years together and as We Are Augustines for a little over a year.

Rob Allen and Eric Sanderson return back to their instruments to perform their last two energetic songs, finishing off with ‘Chapel Song’. By that time Billy and Eric are continuously at the front of the stage to be closer to the enthusiastic audience and Eric ends up doing his first stage dive, smiling and playing the guitar while the crowd carried him back to the stage. This sparked Rob Allen on into a powerful drum “solo”, accompanied by Billy’s guitar, and Eric on keyboards, turning the 3-minute single into a 6-minute climax of an unforgettable gig.

All photos by Julia Stryj. More of Julia’s work can be found here.

Maps and Atlases

By Judy Tate

April 19, 2012

Journeying from Chicago, where the band met several years ago, Maps & Atlases tonight find themselves in the packed basement of Glasgow’s Nice N Sleazy. Vocalist and lead guitarist Dave Davison, affixed to the mic, introduces the band, starting with a track from the new album Beware and Be Grateful. ‘Winter’ immediately asserts the band’s math rock melodies and gives the crowd a taste of the intricate instrumental styles ever present in the band’s work. This is the first of only three tracks included in the set from the band’s new album, released just a few days before the gig. The album’s decidedly polished sound and rhythmical layering implies an intense and perpetual writing process but drummer Chris Hainey defines it as a relaxed three session production. This polished sound transfers neatly to the stage, where later in the set the band air catchy track ‘Fever’, the second track on Beware and Be Grateful. It receives a good response from the crowd and the mix of electronic sounds and tinkly guitar work signifies the fresh elements of the new album. Reviews have commented on Beware and Be Grateful’s deviating sound, but Hainey insists the band are used to this reaction when they first release a record and that they don’t intend on making the same record twice.

Sandwiched between these two new tracks are the familiar ‘Pigeon’ from the band’s debut Perch Patchwork, with its repetitive guitar riffs reminiscent of Vampire Weekend’s ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’. This can be said for several tunes  in the set which mix VW’s chirpy guitar riffs with Davison’s lugubrious vocal styles, which hold similarities with Kings of Leon. Though I doubt the band would immediately cite KOL as having influenced their style, Hainey and bassist Erin Elders describe their influences as being extremely wide ranging due to their individually varying tastes. These span from Talking Heads (their funk stylings can be heard on Beware and Be Grateful, in the playful groove of Silver Self) and David Bowie, to early New York punk, and soul artists such as Bill Withers.

Returning to their performance, the Nice N Sleazy crowd were reserved but responsive, welcoming more well known tracks in the form of ‘Artichokes,’ the immediacy of the heavier drums giving the set some oomph after its rather laid back beginnings. ‘The Charm’ furthers the new found energy with its regimented drum rolls and I spy some foot tapping and head nodding from the audience. The track’s angular melodies and electronic backdrop provides a Foals-like dance-punk presence, a band that Maps and Atlases supported on several dates in the US in 2008. When asked, bassist Elders notes that Total Life Forever (Foals’ 2010 release) was a British album that is currently being listened to a lot on his iPod. Another notable track from the set is ‘Remote and Dark Years’, the third and last track the band perform from their new album. Anthemically arranged, the pop oriented style that critics describe Maps and Atlases as having moved towards is foregrounded, and this is the definite highlight of the night. The track ends quietly and eases into ‘Witch’, its subtle, edgy bass underlying Davison’s vocals, which are admittedly whiney at times, and this is the least enjoyable track of the night. The band redeems themselves however with ‘Is This It’, with its dissonant soundings and again Vampire Weekend riffs, and they successfully and suggestively wind up on ‘Solid Ground’.

Much has been made elsewhere of Yusuf Azak‘s slightly wheezing vocal delivery, but anyone familiar with the work of Nick Drake is well catered for here and the singing sounds more “normal” than a lot of the autotuned trash that’s on the market today. Song number two on his new record Turn on the Long Wire, ‘Time To Kill’, actually brings to mind Ian Brown (albeit if he suddenly went all folky).

Being unfamiliar with Azak’s earlier output is no barrier to enjoying this record, as each of the nine tracks is effortlessly accessible. Generally they’re upbeat and awash with strings with the odd quirky sampled noise popping up now and again. His guitarplaying is of a very high quality as well, so the only thing that presents itself as a negative in the scope of the whole endeavour is the product’s overall length – just as you’re lulled beyond the workaday cares afflicting your over-taxed mind by the lush vibes on offer it all comes to an end.

As no song particularly stands apart from any of the others a 12 song album would have been even more welcome and well worth holding out for on the part of his Song, By Toad records in order to achieve greater effect. As it is the running length of just under half an hour means you need to make use of that repeat button and this review manages to run out of steam somewhat shy of the normal word count for what is purportedly a full-length release. Definitely one of the brighter stars to make it out of Glasgow this year though.

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows

Right from the opening chord of the lush ‘Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything’, Shadows is unmistakeably a new Fannies album. Five years after their previous self-release (Man-Made), Teenage Fanclub’s essential elements are all still in place and performing to good effect – they can still jangle and harmonise along with the best of them, and indeed lead the field when necessary. While that 2005 album was probably the group’s most understated of their now 20 year career, this new release finds them tapping a more youthful and upbeat vein last seen on Howdy! From 2000.

‘Baby Lee’ will surely become a crowd favourite on the upcoming tour for its plentiful sing along opportunities. ‘Into The City’ is probably the song here that comes closest to those on mid-1990s offerings Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain, with its pacy start, fey mid-section and an outro that gets to the thrashiest point of the whole dozen tracks on offer.

Things enter a more thoughtful and measured place on ‘The Past’ which seems to pretty neatly create the sort of idle thought patterns you find yourself following while on the bus with nothing better to do but with no major stresses either. Not sure if ‘Shock And Awe’ is actually a reference to the war in Iraq, or even the Edinburgh punk band of the same name, but either way the feedback returns to the album at this point and we’re swept along on a fairly jaunty wave of the stuff.

Offhand I can’t think of any other songs that contain mention of both The Rolling Stones & The Red Army but Teenage Fanclub manage to get both into ‘When I Still Have Thee’ with ease, and it’s one of their better love songs to boot. ‘Sweet Days Waiting’ veers into cocktail lounge country shimmer and is all the sweeter for it. Slow dancing to this on a late night, with the glitter ball spinning above, before the taxi home doesn’t sound half bad.

All things considered its debatable whether this release will garner the band many new fans but it’s proof positive they’ve still got it in spades and marks a very welcome return for one of the best bands of their generation. Thankfully, they’re not The Shadows yet.

Hinterland

April 3, 2010

In the current financial climate it’s always good to welcome back an urban music festival for a second year, especially one that has been refined to make it better than the previous one. Glasgow’s Hinterland is this year centred on The Arches and five other small venues, three within five minutes of Glasgow Central Railway Station.

Make Sparks are first on my radar, a band who like most bands within a 20 mile radius of Glasgow, will get rightly or wrongly get compared to Frightened Rabbit. There’s more to them to that and although I do indeed hear shades of We Were Promised Jetpacks and Franz Ferdinand. Their chiming, charming single ‘Rewind’ even throws a bit of a Postcard Records sound into the mix. If they write a few more songs like that with a little more of their own voice, their cover of Eminem’s ‘Just Lose It’ might well end up making its way onto Radio 1′s Live Lounge.

On the other side of Scotland, there seems to be more of a leaning towards Montreal, specifically  of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. The Kays Lavelle are one such example of this, half an hour later in Sub Club. With the fiddles, banjos and pleasant nature of their songs it would be easy to lump them under a big tent with The Wilkommen Collective, Mumford and Sons and Broken Records – especially after these charming young men politely converse with the crowd about such pleasantries as their own weddings. That though would be sidelining the icy, elastic snap that their better songs employ.

Completing the lazy up-and-coming Scottish-band-what-sounds-like-current-established-Scottish-band bingo are Little Yellow Ukuleles who aim beyond The Wombats and Dananananaykroyd and towards Biffy Clyro with their angular, anthemic, stadium-aimed rock. “Unamazing, but with bold drum sounds” is my verdict.

Warrington’s Spectrals really impress me, with their laconic, louche Jonathan Richman-esque vocals, and that Moshi Moshi are releasing a single of theirs is no surprise. In spite of earlier Mary Chain comparisons (c’mon, this band isn’t even from Scotland! [Ed: he wrote that bit himself]), they will end up being put in the same pigeonhole as Girls, The Drums and The Strange Boys – check out the surfy instrumental and early rock ‘n’ roll aping for the reasons why. With some self released tapes in their discography, they might even get picked up by glo-fi aficionados broadening their palette this summer.

The main events back in The Arches are British Sea Power and Mystery Jets. A snazzy attired British Sea Power give a stirring, if short, performance of songs mainly from their debut – and a little from 2008′s Do You Like Rock Music? The set is bookmarked by ‘Scottish Wildlife’ from the Man of Aran soundtrack, and ‘Spirit of St. Louis’/ ‘Rock In A’ which sees a welcome, if inhibited, role for BSP’s Ursa Major, a 7ft bear-costume (with Jeffrey Lewis inside it) pawing at the band.

Dismayed with the way that should-have-been-hit-filled 21 was badly promoted by 679 before they dropped them, Mystery Jets‘ new songs are a welcome relief. Those that unfamiliar with their last album are converted by ‘Half in Love with Elizabeth’, ‘Young Love’ and a storming rendition of ‘Hand Me Down’, but in their armoury they seem to move on from Haircut 100 to wanting to soundtrack Top Gun. 3rd album Serotonin sounds like it’s going to be the soundtrack to the summer with massive soft rock, Blur circa Modern Life Is Rubbish, and even New Order on ‘Dreaming of Another World’ at hand.

It would be good to have the festival back next year, maybe roping in a few more venues and bands both local and national to compete with Stag and Dagger for dominance of the Glasgow festival dollar.

Chemikal Underground

If you’re looking to name a contemporary independent Scottish label, there’s a chance Chemikal Underground will be the first. Originally set up by The Delgados to release their debut single, they quickly established themselves as the most important label in Scotland since Postcard releasing records by the likes of Arab Strap, Mogwai, Aereogramme, Bis, Mother & The Addicts and even Interpol (albeit only one record by them). Tonight’s gig, as part of Glasgow’s annual Celtic Connections festival is a celebration of Chemikal’s fifteenth birthday, with a selection of the labels current offerings on stage to help, and Vic Galloway hosting in between.

Travelling from ‘the other place’ to Glasgow, this writer only gets the middle of the evening’s entertainment, four bands who certainly maintain the label’s image of having an eclectic but cohesive roster. Zoey van Goey, are an indiepop five piece whose overall ‘sound’ is difficult to pin down, but they’re entertaining if nothing else. There’s something of a less-twee Belle & Sebastian about them, but perhaps if B&S had been weaned on post-rock, as well as Felt.

Next is the debut performance from The Unwinding Hours, formed from the ashes of Aereogramme (disbanded in 2007). They instantly create an atmosphere, beginning with sparse guitars before getting louder and more epic, slightly reminiscent of The Twilight Sad, if a little less dour. The highlight of their set has to be during their last song, ‘The Final Hour’, when the it changes from sparse instrumentation to an ear-splitting, trouser-flapping din, forcing numerous members of the audience out of their skin. Unfortunately some of the material verges a little bit on the MOR side of things, but with moments like that up their sleeve, it’s certainly worth giving them a chance.

Lord Cut-Glass are label founder and former Delgado Alun Woodward’s new project, making literate pop music, which certainly has echoes of his former band, if augmented with Scottish and gypsy folk influences, and even ska rhythms at one point.

Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells are an interesting prospect for the long time Strap/Moffat fan, especially if one’s never heard them together before. Moffat sits behind the drums, Wells a the piano, and they are accompanied by (member of Moffats’ sometime backing-band The Best-Ofs) Stevie Jones on double bass. At first it comes across as not incredibly interesting lounge jazz, and that doesn’t even change terribly much when Moffat’s gruff Scots tones are introduced. Things improve dramatically when Moffat plays a low, ominous drone on a Shruti box, matched by Jones’ bass, while the vocalist relates a dark if humorous tale of a schoolchild breaking into his old house. From there (a hitherto undetectable influence on Moffat’s music) Tom Waits is very much audible, and it’s a satisfying progression, whetting the appetite for their forthcoming album.

Then it’s back to Auld Reekie, with (perhaps the most well-known ex-Delgado) Emma Pollock and The Phantom Band still to come. More’s the pity as both are fine acts and would doubtlessly serve to underline the overall feeling one gets from the evening: that Chemikal’s role in (not just Scottish) contemporary music is as vital as it has ever been, and should continue to be so, as long as they continue as they have and keep releasing records by bands they like. Here’s to the next fifteen years.

Laura Groves

As a big fan of Blue Roses‘s wonderful debut album and having been lucky enough to catch her a couple of times live before at The Great Escape and Glastonbury, Muso’s Guide was pleased to have the opportunity to chat to Blue Roses’ Laura Groves before her gig at The Captain’s Rest in Glasgow, earlier this month. Having to jettison an interview indoors thanks to the elderly gentleman, wearing his medals and a large poppy (it was Remembrance Sunday) who insisted on querying the war records of drinker’s grandfathers (no, really!) and not satisfied with was asking who had their medals. Laura chatted to us about her year, approach to song-writing and upcoming plans as well as Wild Beasts, gender roles in music and Twitter out in the wind and cold. Considering Laura had to cancel one gig before this night due to a sore throat, Muso’s Guide was very relieved that the tour was completed without anymore illness.

Muso’s Guide: As we are getting near the end of the year, what have been your personal and artistic highlights?

Laura Groves: I think the last tour; especially the Wild Beasts support was brilliant. I think that we’ve come on as a live band and improved in that area. I’ve also just recorded this EP with some new songs which I’m quite pleased with. It’s kind of a new sound, which has evolved and that’s quite exciting. I’m really pleased with the way we’ve developed.

MG: Being picked up on Kanye West’s blog must have been a bit of a surprise as well?

LG: Yeah, definitely. It was a video from, I think Germany. They’d found one of my songs and liked and then they used it for one of their film-making projects and that was what was on the blog. Then I had people on my MySpace telling me I was on Kanye West’s blog. I was sceptical of course, as it was completely bizarre and unexpected but pretty cool.

MG: With the debut record, what were you trying to get across with it; an introduction to yourself as an artist?

LG: I think so; I just wanted to make a record of the songs I had in the way they were recorded. I didn’t want to attempt anything that the songs didn’t require. Those songs already existed but there’s a couple on there that actually wrote for the album, things like ‘Doubtful Comforts’ and ‘Rebecca’, and they don’t quite fit in with the others. Whereas ‘I Am Leaving’ for example was the first song that I wrote and recorded almost three years ago. It was kind of a record of what material I had.

MG: So you weren’t trying to capture your live sound on it or anything?

LG: Not really because it was kind of the other way round; we didn’t really come together as a live, thing while I was recording. It was more of an afterthought. There’s a lot of arrangements on the album which we don’t do live, we just re-work them a little bit. I didn’t really consider how we were going to play it all; we just did it as we went along.

MG: Was there a moment when you felt like everything was coming together and you were really doing it?

LG: Yes, definitely. I think when I decided to change the name. I was touring as Laura Groves and doing acoustic gigs by myself, then I felt it couldn’t be that anymore and had to move onto the next stage and it seemed appropriate.

MG: So when did you make that decision, then?

LG: Just towards the end of the recording phase actually. It was before we finished the album. Just because… it kind of surpassed our expectations of how we thought it was going to sound. It sort of changed from the original basic idea so at that stage we decided to [change the name].

MG: When you were recording, what were your main influences, music wise? A lot of reviewers have mentioned Joanna Newsom, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush…

LG: Yeah, I mean I’m a big fan of all of those and a lot of different music. I don’t think I ever sat down and thought I want to… I didn’t really have a reference point for the album.

MG: You didn’t go to a producer and say “I want this to sound like ‘Hounds of Love’”?

LG: No, not really. That’s not to say they didn’t probably make their way into the music somehow.

MG: More of a sub-conscious than deliberate influence.

LG: Yeah.

MG: ‘Moments Before Sleep’ [B-side to 'I Am Leaving'] I really feel could fit on the Ninth Wave section of Hounds of Love, especially with the production and the vocal that you did on it.

LG: It’s a lot more electronic as well. There are no guitars on it at all, not one.

MG: A bit of a Kid A moment…

LG: Yeah (laughs). I never really have a template for the songs in terms of other people’s songs. I try to let them happen naturally. I don’t know if that’s going to change for the next thing that I do. I may go into that with a much clearer picture in my mind of the sound. That’s quite likely actually.

MG: So you think there is going to be a change to your approach to song-writing?

LG: I don’t know if my approach will be different; certainly in terms of having a clear idea about how the collection of songs are going to sound prior to starting the recording. Not that I’m making a concept album or anything! The actual song-writing and recording process will pretty much remain the same.

MG: Do you think, in that case, you might succumb to a temptation to write less personally and more allegorically or character based? Or even inspired by where you’re from?

LG: I think, I think it will still be a personal thing because I’m not in the habit of writing stories about other people. Maybe my lyrics are getting a bit more interesting in that they aren’t clearly about one particular thing or as obviously personally. I’m trying to write a lot more as well trying to be a bit more prolific with the lyrics. Initially I am all about the composing, the recording and the music side of things. Lyrics aren’t an afterthought but they did come later on. I am trying to put a lot more focus on that.

MG: When you are writing, are you constantly ‘on’ or do you need to find the time to write?

LG: I do sort of tend to mess around on the piano, experiment, see what I can come up with. I don’t have a regimented way of doing it. I’m not really the sort that is able to sit down, for a set time, and write a song from scratch. I wish I was sometimes but I can’t do it. It’s more of an organic process for me.

MG: The name is a literary reference, Tennessee Williams; [from The Glass Menagerie] is there anything you are reading at the moment that might seep into your work? Or do you separate that from your own song writing?

LG: No, definitely things that I read are an influence. As it’s getting wintery I’m reading gothic novels which might make a way in. I do love reading and literature but again I wouldn’t deliberately write in a certain style. It’s a lot more about ideas than… I use books to spark off ideas rather than inform my writing style, to get me in the right frame of mind.

MG: There are also a few references to things that can’t be held or seen or don’t really exist like Blue Roses for a start and seeing electricity, emotions and so on that seem to crop up.

LG:  Yeah I guess, again that kind of imagery is not something I set out to include. It’s more of a subconscious thing, definitely.

MG: Like with most female, young singers articles and reviews seem to have to mention the exact age of the singer? How does that make you feel? Because it doesn’t seem to be brought up nearly as much for male solo artists or bands.

LG: Yeah, it’s weird, especially recently with a lot of us coming through. It’s not really important, is it?

MG: How old are you actually, 21, 22?

LG: Almost 22, in a couple of weeks.

MG: It’s funny because Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney were both 23 in 1966 when they recorded Pet Sounds and Revolver yet we are amazed that Adele, Laura Marling, Lily Allen or yourself can make a good album because you are young. When, not so much recently like you say, if you look back through older magazines at what are considered classic albums of yesteryear and it’s not youth that’s the ‘amazing’ thing it’s that you are a female solo artist. Because they were full of bands with guys the same age, if not younger, which makes me think it’s a little hypocritical.

LG: Yeah, it’s focused on a lot and it is a strange thing especially the young aspect and how it’s an amazing thing and a lot of attention is drawn to it when if it’s a good album, it’s a good album.

MG: Especially when people like Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Dizzee Rascal were all very young, 18-19 when they made their first records.

LG: And Kate Bush was at #1 in the charts with ‘Wuthering Heights’ when she was that age.

MG: I’m forever reading reviews that say “such and such belies their age on this record, isn’t it amazing someone so young can write something like this?” but no-one would write anything as ridiculous as “This is a good song, for a woman” which is almost the same thing.

LG: Yeah (laughs), I definitely agree with you.

MG: Talking about Revolver on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ there’s no instrument on that from the 20th century, it could have been performed in 1866 and, apart from the keyboard parts which could move to piano I guess, I get that sense with your music as well. That it’s not tied to the present day and could have been written fifty or a hundred years ago.

LG: My brother is a baroque violinist and specialises in old violins so we used them and they made a totally different sound. So it doesn’t really fit in with the fashion for young, female with a synth more electronic sound or whatever, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do but I think to try and mould something into a genre that it doesn’t really belong is not the right way to go about things. Like I was saying a little earlier; this is the way that the songs needed to be done, so that’s how we did it. We didn’t record them and then think “Oh, we need to make it sound a bit more like this”.

MG: So you don’t want to put a dubstep remix album?

LG: Ha, well you never know! Would that be such a bad thing?

MG: Maybe not, maybe you need to get in touch with someone?

LG: The guy that co-produced the album with me, one of my good friends, is really into all that. I’m sure he’d love to do some remixes.

MG: You’ve been on tour Noah & The Whale and as you mentioned Wild Beasts recently but how has it been on this, your first headlining tour?

LG: It’s been brilliant, completely different to what we are used to. We’ve been so used to doing support slots that it’s a nice departure. It’s good to know that people are coming out to see us. I really like touring. I don’t have to do any of the driving which helps! I really find performing in general quite nerve-wracking. I feel a lot more at home in the studio recording and things like that but I really enjoy it. We’ve changed the set around a little bit this time to make it a bit fresher as well. But really enjoying it, stage fright aside!

MG: You are quite friendly with Wild Beasts as well aren’t you?

LG: Yeah I’d met them a couple of times, I was aware of them obviously because they’re sort of Leeds based and I’m from around there. I’d seen them a few times around, local. With the tour for their new album they thought of asking us to go on tour with them, which was really good. Especially as I really like their new record.

MG: The reason I ask is I wanted to know if you were one of the girls from Shipley in ‘All The King’s Men’?

LG: No, I don’t think so! I think it’s more to do with the sound of the word Shipley rather than an actual, realistic description of anyone.

MG: I guess with the shout-outs to those kinds of far-flung places you’d not expect to be sung about, it’s an ode to The Smiths’ ‘Panic’.

LG: I think it’s more of a nod to that then. Yeah, or the reputation of the ladies in those parts!

MG: It’s been a few years since the first talk of a Yorkshire scene with Dance To The Radio artists breaking out, how do you see it now?

LG: Aside from Wild Beasts again, who are from Kendal but have relocated there’s Grammatics, who I really like, I’ve recorded a live track from the album [Blue Roses's album] and we re-arranged it, it was from a gig we played together where we played each other’s songs and is on the new EP. Where I’m from which is more Bradford than Leeds there’s not really too much going on. There was kind of a surge of activity a year or two ago but it’s sort of died out. That or it tends to gravitate towards Leeds. I mean the town where I’m from there’s even less happening than Bradford, it’s our little strange world.

MG: So aside from Grammatics, do you have any other collaborations on the horizon, or any that you’d like to do?

LG: I dunno, I’m going to start some more recording soon and thinking about the next album so I’d like to get some friends and the musicians I’ve met involved with that. With the touring it’s a good way to meet people and forge relationships with them. Definitely going to do more if I can.

MG: It does seem, maybe it’s something I just didn’t notice when I was younger, that a lot of acts on the same record label and support each other touring and things like that do seem to genuinely be tight and good friends with each other. I’m not so sure that this ‘trend’ is particularly linked to any kind of scene be it musically or geographically either, just that they are fans of each other’s work.

LG: Yeah definitely, and I think that’s really important. I mean sometimes it doesn’t work like that but when it does and you are really into another band, a special relationship can develop and it’s really good collaborating with people that you admire as well.

MG: How are XL as a record label? No pressure from them to tour more or follow up quickly?

LG: Good, I mean obviously they’ve got a lot of good stuff going on at the minute; they’ve had a good year. They are very good at just letting me do what I do. As I record myself and produce my own music they are behind me with that and let me get on with it and it’s more that I wanted to get on with it myself than they put pressure on me, it’s all quite relaxed.

MG: You are off to the US soon aren’t you? Looking forward to that? What else is coming up for you?

LG: Very much, yeah. We’re going for almost a month on a proper coast to coast tour. We’re touring with Marcus Foster, who’s just one guy and his acoustic guitar and we are all going in one car together. I’m kind of scared of flying so that’ll be a big obstacle to get over the Atlantic, but once we’re there, it should be really good.  There’s the new EP as well which as a couple of new songs an there’s the live song with Grammatics as well and a track off the album, ‘Does Anyone Love Me, Now’ [the EP's title track] It’s really good to have new material to take on the road.

MG: It’s coming to that time of the year again so, what are your favourite albums of the year?

LG: The two that stick out are Grizzly Bear, I love that and Wild Beasts. I’m listening to those two a lot at the minute.

MG: And the decade?

LG: Oh God!

MG: Sorry to spring this on you; first thing that pops into you head?

LG: I can’t think, most of the things I have been listening to are…

MG: Ten years old or more? Maybe I’ll ask you again in five years time.

LG: OK (laughs, sighs), oh dear.

MG: And finally how are you finding Twitter?

LG: Kind of annoying but addictive. I just end up telling people what I eat, so mundane but people like to know about things like that!

MG: It does humanise people a fair amount.

LG: Yeah but, that goes against it all. I like there being a bit of mystic when it comes to my favourite music.

MG: So you don’t want to read about Wild Beasts, popping down the shop.

LG: They’ve got one too! I don’t know, it’s a bit of a revelation, until now there was always a gap there. Especially with big artists where it seemed they were in a totally different world and unreachable

MG: Now we know they sit in their pyjamas watching the X-Factor eating tiramisu like the rest of us.

LG: Yeah, I kind of love it and hate it at the same time. It’s funny when you meet people and they say “We’ve tweeted each other” and you’d not known who they were at the time.

MG: Yeah, we’ve tweeted each other.

LG: Really? Oh cool.

Laura and the rest of Blue Roses are touring the USA and Canada from early December. The EP, ‘Does Anyone Love Me, Now’ is out 7th December and you can follow what Laura is eating on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/blueroseslaura

The Big Pink

October 14th 2009

The Big Pink are a band to be approached with caution. They tick a lot of the right boxes – cool influences, cool record label, a well thought-out image (their artwork prominently featuring the beautiful photography of Marc Atkins, handily consisting primarily of female nudes). They’ve had their fair amount of hype this year, as well as releasing that song.

Judging from tonight’s crowd it it would seem there has already been a fairly significant crossover, there being a few among the crowd who look/act like they heard them on T4/Hollyoaks/wherever it is these people find out about music these days. Not to be too judgemental of course, but it’s pretty clear they’re only hear for one thing, one moment, one song.

Bearing this in mind, it’s somewhat unsurprising local support Findo Gask receive a relatively lukewarm reception. They’re an odd proposition in some ways, their songs are full of melody, bobbing bass, squelching synths. Nothing so odd there, you might think. And there isn’t, but what is slightly disquieting is that they actually come off like an electro-pop, house-infused version of The Smiths (or perhaps, more accurately, Gene). It’s both catchy and quirky, features that should appeal across this fairly broad audience, but it falls pretty flat. Maybe they don’t exude enough machismo. To be fair, it is all slightly on the camp side, but since when has that been an obstacle to either indie or pop crowds?

The Big Pink appear, goth-ed up to the nines. They start how they will go on, sweaty, loud, personality-less. Straight off something feels wrong, correction, sounds wrong. The Big Pink are the heirs to the Jesus & Mary Chain and The Cocteau Twins (both local-ish heroes of course) right? They do a funny impression of it if they are. The sound is processed, slick to the point of blandness. That’s the problem with this show; any atmosphere they’ve evoked on record is sorrily absent in this live rendering. The static charge, the energy, the noise a new band like this usually need to carry them forward is sorely lacking. Even ‘Velvet’, lauded by many as a song of the year, is deadened by its smoothness and the context within which it is delivered. In fact, it’s downright dull.

Before the big moment, the one for the hairdressers and still mourning Oasis fans, this writer strides into the black, cool autumn air of Glasgow toun. He puts the Cocteau Twins in his ears, and smiles a little rueful smile, disappointed, if unsurprised.

Arne Weinberg - Alpha & Omega

As bassline house and UK funky emerges emphatically from London, the home of cutting edge minimal and techno is, and arguably always has been, Berlin. But while nearly all techno king pins, including the likes of Michael Mayer, Superpitcher, Ewan Pearson, and Ricardo Villalobos continue to operate out of Deutschland, one 4/4 minded German has recently made the switch to the slightly grittier climes of central Glasgow.

Arne Weinberg has been crafting delicate techno and ambient records since 2001. His record label has been an entity since 2004, and is just releasing his first full length since the relocation to Scotland. Weinberg’s exodus from the epicentre of techno will not come as too much of a surprise to fans. His brand of rattly electronica is far more akin to the producers over at Soma records – Glasgow’s premier techno label.

Weinberg’s is a thin, wiry sound with sparse atmospherics, quite alien to the warm, layered template as preferred by his contintental peers. As a consequence, and as with several albums on Soma as well, Alpha & Omega is not immediately accessible. Yet after a while you begin to familiarise yourself with the arch of its narrative, which subtly builds near the heart of the album, and then dies down to simmer at the end. Both in sound and structure, therefore, Weinberg shares more than just a passing similarity with a Scottish and Soma contemporary – Vector Lovers. But even that artist’s records aren’t as coldly metallic as Alpha & Omega. It brims with skittled hi-hats and whistly synth pads, all unfolding neatly and with little fuss.

‘Nightstalker’ is its most potent weapon. Starting out at first like Silicone Soul, them mutating into a complex, Slam-like work-out, it is perhaps the most dancefloor leaning track on the disc. The seven-and-a-half minutes of the laborious ‘Synthetic Dissection’ takes the wind out of the album’s sails (/ sales?), before picking up a little for the broody ‘Defining Negative Spaces’ and tech-housey ‘Eclectic Spiral’. Ultimately, it seems you can take the the musician out of Germany, but you can’t take Germany out of the musician. You’re left with a feeling that Weinberg is an accomplished techno producer, but it is all a little bit measured, mechanical, and, crucially, too serious.

Even Kraftwerk had a sense of humour. For those of you casually dipping into the genre now and then, avoid this and wait for the second album from France’s Pantha du Prince, due for release later this year. It is more than likely to feature things Arne Weinberg chooses to ignore – some oomph, and more importantly, some heart and soul.

We Were Promised Jetpacks

August 21st 2009

Having heard significant amounts of hype around this band of late, this particular Muso felt it was about time to head out and check this band out live to see just what they have to offer.

And glad we were to have made that decision…

It’s a busy Friday night in Camden Barfly, anticipation is in the air as first band That Fucking Tank are late arriving, they are due on stage now but still no sign of their arrival. Well, they say the best things are worth waiting for, so that we do and no sooner have we settled into a sofa with a pint of cider that the band arrive and promptly take to the stage. The verdict? We aren’t inspired. This kind of progressive instrumental offering feels like it needs the vocals, like they have simply been erased. The tunes do not say enough to pull it off as instrumentals and there is an abundance of similar monotonic tunes that just don’t float our boat.

We Were Promised Jetpacks take to the stage and immediately make an impact. ‘Quiet Little Voices’ is a highlight with its fast-paced rhythms and intense shout-out lyrics. The song does exactly the opposite to its indicative title, an in-aptly named track that captures the venue here tonight and gets the crowd moving.

Jetpacks are original. They are individual and arguably bring to the table a unique Scottish sound, just like Biffy Clyro did all those years ago. But the similarity of these two Scottish bands ends there. Biffy brought metal and Jetpacks bring alternative indie rock. There is, however, something a little endearing about a Scottish vocal (albeit ‘Same Jeans’ wearers The View). Their sound is rugged and real, perfection is a long way away; but this is the essence of their sound.

Single release ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ is likeable but not their best track thus far. There is less interest here and is that a slight hint of a Brandon Flowers style vocal chorus? Had the Killers sang this we would not be surprised. Perhaps not a bad thing; after all, how many million albums have The Killers sold so far?

‘Ships With Holes Will Sink’ is an all out rocking number that combines simplistic verses with deeper choruses that let it all out. There is a steady rhythm that draws us in with catchy riffs to shake your head to. Tonight, We Were Promised Jetpacks have perfectly captured their audience with an atmosphere that engulfs and drowns its spectators. Doubtless it is that anyone in here tonight will return for their next show.

Currently on tour in the US with Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad we will inarguably be seeing much more of We Were Promised Jetpacks in the future, and quite honestly it will be a treat.