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

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”.
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Words with Blue Roses

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.

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Amanda Palmer: “I think deliberate intrigue is not my forte. I’ll leave that to PJ Harvey.”

Amanda Palmer

Muso’s Guide met up with Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls to talk about Twitter and getting dropped…

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Reviewface #4 with Cymbals Eat Guitars

Cymbals Eat Guitars

And so our hot, new, overly-innovative series continues! This week, we’ve employed one of our favourite bands of 2009, Cymbals Eat Guitars, to review the week’s singles releases. We’ve caught them on camera (as filmed by the ever-talented Tim Boddy) reviewing ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ by Scottish amazings Frightened Rabbit, ‘Little Secrets’ by ball-squeeze-at-the-disco’ers Passion Pit and ‘Russian Roulette’ by seems-to-be-2009’s-Aaliyah, Rihanna. And without even a prompt, they invent an impromptu (and very un-Muso’s Guide) rating system quantified in peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

If you’ve been following this series, you’ll have noticed that we’ve been picking our very favourite bands to take part, and it’s a great honour to have Cymbals Eat Guitars in with us this week. Their debut album Why There Are Mountains wraps wild experimentation around a core of bombastic indie rock, and is certainly in my personal favourites of the year. Album-opener ‘… And The Hazy Sea’ is the finest opening track I’ve heard all year, drawing me all the way into Cymbals Eat Guitars’ passages of crashing guitars, noisy brass and quietly shimmering jangle. The mastery comes in the way they combine these sounds so fluently without ever sounding awkward, brash or ungrounded; very rarely has a debut album sounded so intense and bouncy at the same time. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide Introduces… We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists

We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists

Allow us to introduce to you Swedish favourites We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists. They’re situated in Gothenburg but have come there via Manchester – and you can certainly hear the fuzzy grey skies in their music. Here they are…

Muso’s Guide: How are you being received in Gothenburg? Do you find yourselves sticking out like a sore thumb in their love for indiepop/Balearic beats?

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BEAK>’s Billy Fuller: “Maybe we’ll end up being like Marmite”

BEAK>

It’s an enviable prospect having some of Bristol’s finest musicians as label mates, especially when you happen to run the label they belong to. This was the position Geoff Barrow found himself in one Christmas in 2007 at the Invada label Christmas party, The Invada Acid Tests.

It was at this party that Geoff, Billy Fuller of Fuzz Against Junk and Matt Williams of Team Brick came together to jam, with Barrow on drums, Fuller on Bass and Williams playing clarinet. In January of this year with space in their schedules, the trio came together once again to record what would be BEAK>’s debut album.

Today, BEAK>’s bassist Billy Fuller has allowed some time to discuss the album. When I speak to Billy, he and the band are in the process of putting the finishing touches to 500 limited edition BEAK> box sets. “We wanted to do something a little bit special in this age of downloading where you just grab it and stick it on your iPod. I’m an avid record collector and I think there are still people out there who like products. A physical thing that looks nice. The box set is like the Beak fans instant collectors box.” … Continue Reading

Jeremy Jay: I’ve recorded my new album already

Jeremy Jay

“We’ve recorded a new album called Splash,” that is what attracted the most attention when we stole a bit of Jeremy Jay’s time during an European tour including a lot, a lot of dates. That tour is then immediately followed by an American tour with – you guessed it – a lot of dates. Not that Jeremy Jay was ever a homebound man. He’s lived in San Diego, Portland, Los Angeles, Paris, and this summer he resided in London. “I took up a room in Broadway Market, London Fields, this summer and I’ve been enjoying my summer here, painting and writing,” he told us. “And I’ve been taking lots of photos.”

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Japandroids: our next record won’t be about fur coats and champagne

Japandroids

Japandroids’ Post-Nothing is an awesome record. We reviewed it on the US release back in May, as you’ll see if you click on that first link. Our reviewer compared Japandroids to Hüsker Dü, The Hold Steady, hell even Vincent Van Gogh at one point – it’s a violent record, truth be told. We asked the duo a few snippets of question and here’s what happened:

Brian, are you all recovered now from what happened earlier this year? It sounded awful. And how was it to get back on the road again after emergency surgery?
Still recovering. Getting back on the road again was not easy, as i was far from recovered, but too stubborn to cancel yet another tour. That said, getting back on the road was quite easy, as i was sick to death of lurking around my apartment, not being able to ‘do’ anything.

Do you really not give a fuck if it’s raining in Vancouver when you’re on the road and far from home?
Actually, i always give a fuck if it’s raining in Vancouver, whether i’m home or on the road – my cats don’t like the rain – it scares them and they can’t go outside to bask in the fresh air, chase bugs, and eat grass, all of which they like to do. Whenever i get news of rain in Vancouver, i know they are sitting by the window, meowing in captive distress.

What has been your favourite place to play?
Vancouver, because after the show i can go home and play with my cats. … Continue Reading

Everything Everything: “never say never”

Everything Everything

Everything Everything are rapidly becoming the most genre-assassinating, reassuringly open-minded and adorable combo this country has to offer. Raised in the north-east and Kent but forming in Manchester, their trilogy of intriguing, innovative yet easily accessible singles has attracted acclaim from such influential figures as Johnny Marr, Zane Lowe, Marc Riley and Stuart Maconie, yet they remain unsigned in the long-term.  In a shaky musical climate, where do they position themselves? Is their current situation symptomatic of a distrust of the industry?

“No, I think it’s symptomatic of a distrust of us! It’s probably a good thing that we’ve spread ourselves a little thinly to begin with, because we’re still finding our feet, as much as labels are with us. I think it’s a positive thing to keep these things in separate houses, as it were.” … Continue Reading