POTS #2 - October 2006
By: Thomas Hannan
JOSH HALL - PHOTOGRAPHER
First up, this month's most-played must surely be the lovely Thom Stone. He is wistful and melancholic, with a collection of some of the most fantastic lyrics you will ever hear.
Bournemouth isn't usually known as a thriving musical hot-spot, but it has spawned a band called Brenda who, if you can forgive the god-awful name, might actually be one of the best bands you've ever heard. They write enormous post-rock monoliths, and quite often play entirely improvised live sets.
Finally, a guilty pleasure. Almost everyone I know bullies me mercilessly for it, but I am in love with Panic! At The Disco. I know. But just give them a chance; there's not a bad track on their debut album, and with perfect pop choruses and lyrical hooks aplenty, there's lots to get your teeth into. Please don't hate me.
MICHAEL LEWIN - STAFF WRITER
I never go to libraries. There's something about frigid virgins with scraped-back yet still frowsy hair and a pervading sense of lives lost to drabness that makes me lose whatever it was I forgot to have for lunch.
However, had I lived back in '86 and they'd have been the only place for the satchel-carrying, hole-ridden knitwear-wearing likes of me; indeed, as I type, my fingers poke through breaches in my cardigan sleeves and my foot strokes the faithful, adoring bag beneath the table. There's even a twig of lavender given to me by a girl taped to my monitor.
Yes, I am indeed unashamedly twee today. And so I'm listening to the best jangly pop the time between gladioli and Pollock photo shoots had to offer. Feel a little wistful? Enjoying it? But want to be a little more lively, with an underlying hint of rising hectic mania like a '40s screwball comedy vixen rushing round a dorm-room getting ready to go out in 1986? Talulah Gosh is the answer, baby. Easily the best band of the C86 days being celebrated at the ICA this month; I'll see you there, all dressed in cord.
Of course, if you want the same thing with a hipster twist, check out Asobi Seksu's second album, 'Citrus'. Giddy shibuya-kei pop genius in a New York club dancing with Kevin Shields, with the requisite fey girl vox and the occasional song in Japanese just to make you feel that bit more arch. Oh! For a few more shoegazing revivalists that aren't simply dreadful. Will someone tell Serena Maneesh to f**k off for me please? Idiots.
Hey! When was the last time you listened to '69 Love Songs' by the Magnetic Fields? If you aren't listening to it right now, it was too long ago.
If you are listening to it right now, then you might as well stop and listen to 'Etiquette' by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone instead. Is it a sin to shamelessly copy a really, really great band? Yeah, but seeing as Stephin Merritt is now insane and making soundtracks for pretend Chinese Operas (the deeply mad, yet recognisably-him, 'Showtunes'- sample lyric: "onekalele-twokalele-threekalele/Ukalele Me!"), there's a nice big hole in the articulate, dour-voiced indie pop market with occasional C86 -throwback/Rilo Kiley-sounding guest lady vocalist and Casiotone fill it better than most.
I remember a conversation with a former NME journalist - a really smug bastard, all into his real music, the kind that has a poster of Mark E Smith over his marital bed and yet does not wake up screaming. He said Sufjan Stevens was doing what Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields should have moved onto. I say: listen to 'Showtunes' and weep into your well-orchestrated yet ultimately irritating alt.country, buster.
Twee broadcast over.
ALEX LEE THOMSON - LISTINGS EDITOR
Well, aside from the usual onslaught of Bright Eyes and Motorettes, recently I've been tackling one of the most intriguing bands to my ears, Larrikin Love. I couldn't situate these guys at first but the more I listen to their debut album the more head over heals in love with them I fall. There's such a muddle of styles that bounce off each other throughout 'The Freedom Spark' but 'At The Feet Of Rae' for me makes the album and has such been spun greatly on the ol' stereogram lately.
As I've been packing ready to move house I've been going through all my old CDs and have found an old Savage Garden album that I remember being quite essential to me in the late 90s, so that's had its comeback this week. Yeah, what?
I caught Jamie T live this month and as such the guy's had some decent play around the house much to the infuriation of my fellow housemates... I love his take on an old style and how he's made some really awesome and multifaceted songs out of what could stand alone as honest poetry. I'm looking forward to this guys album.
An old tune, but The Only Ones' Another Girl Another Planet is back in regular play thanks to a telly advert featuring the pre-indie-pop anthem. If you've not heard this one in a while, or like me it came out before you were born, give it a shot.
Finally, the funky new Rakes track, extravagantly titled 'The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect', is at the top of my list. It's easily their best riff and plays nicely over a reckless drum loop with all the eccentric lyrics you'd expect from Alan Donahue igniting a spark that was beginning to dim for the band. I just happen to be a supermassive Rakes fan, a hanger-on if you will from the bands debut, and this for me is among, if not tripping above, the best of their variable labours... now go away and dance you bastards.
GARETH ROBERTS - MANCHESTER CORRESPONDENT
Talking Heads' 'Fear of Music' is, for me, easily their best album. It amazes me that songs like 'Paper' and 'Life During Wartime' aren't revered as highly as some of their other more well know songs. All of the tracks, helped by Brian Eno's production, are as crisp and relevant today as they were then. In short, it's a classic, never let anyone tell you that 'Remain In Light' was their best record.
You could say that without The Yummy Fur there would be no Franz Ferdinand, as both Alex Kapranos and Paul Thompson had spells in this Glaswegian band whose propensity to change line up would almost make Mark E Smith's habitual hiring and firing seem normal. It's notoriously difficult to get hold of their albums, as such Ebay is the only place to find them, and even then it's not easy to track them down. 'Male Shadow at 3'O Clock' is perhaps their best, a ramshackle Rolling Stones for the 90's and certainly the most obvious pre-cursor to their current project (two of the band make up the 1990's, one of Rough Trade's most recent signings).
'Any Other City' is the only album Life Without Buildings ever released, and it's a corker. How songs like 'PS Exclusive' and 'The Leanover' have gone largely unnoticed by the indie kids of today is beyond me, the upside of this is you never get tired of hearing them.
Bricolage are currently working their debut album for Memphis Industries, due out next year. But in the meantime check out the excellent 'Footsteps' or 'Looting Takes the Waiting out of Wanting' at ww.myspace.com/bricolagetheband. If, like me, you like Orange Juice and Josef K, they'll be right up your street.
LAUREN GALLAGHER - STAFF WRITER
'Steven Smith' is haunting, sultry, bewitching - need I say more? Perhaps the best track on The Organ's outstanding 2004 debut album 'Grab That Gun'. These Canadian ladies know how to provide a modern twist on the edge of that glorious era of music designated 'post punk.'
'The Night I Couldn't Stop Crying' by Devastations is one of the best rainy day songs you'll ever hear. Conrad Standish's deep, throaty, not-unlike Nick Cave vocals seem to come from the bowels of a soul that has been to the end of the world and back. More experienced than weary, the tone of the tune ends with a bright charge of guitar, sending you into a dazzlingly lit future. Truly transgressive. listen, weep, and be reborn.
'Moonshiner' is special. Most people who hear this don't realise it's Bob Dylan. If you haven't already heard this brilliant, early Dylan show (Live at the Gaslight, '65), you're in for a treat. This is Dylan at his most raw, pure, and naive. By sounding simultaneously infantile and aged, he taps into the paradox of life that the young and old are often one and the same in their helplessness and brutal honesty.
MATT TOMIAK - REVIEWS EDITOR
Recently, I've been rocking out to 'Motion Sickness: Live Recordings' by Bright Eyes, one of the finest live LPs of recent memory and certainly the last 12 months. 'When The President Talks To God' in particular... a searing, vituperative inditment of Dubya and the hijacking of Christian 'values' by his neo-con cronies; it's raging intensity fitting Conor Obert's bottom-of-the-stomach vocals. It's not overstating the case to mention it in the same breath of 'Masters of War'. I was a bit sceptical of all that 'new Dylan' hype before. Not after this.
CHARLIE POTTER - STAFF WRITER
Well, obviously 'The Art of Fiction' by Jeremy Warmsley (we've all been listening to that one...), but also...
I've been listening to the incredible 'Soundtracks For The Blind' by Swans. This is their last ever full length studio album, and from what I have heard of their other albums is one of their best. The music is incredibly touching and epic but often brutal and ruthless. A lot of the lyrical content is worth listening to, exploring a wide range of themes centred around abjection, which is carefully and sensitively tackled for all the right reasons. Still if you're not into all that at times Freudian nonsense there is more than enough musically to keep you occupied. At 2 hours and 21 minutes it is something you may have to keep some time free for. but the experience is all the more rewarding for the investment of time. If you really want to make the most of it then I would advise listening to it on your own whilst doing absolutely nothing else, but make sure you have some tea and biscuits, and make sure you have been to the toilet, if you are well behaved you will be allowed to refuel on the drinks and snacks when it is in between discs.
Orthrelm's 'Ov' is one of the most innovative albums of the last decade. This is not for the faint hearted - this album completely deconstructs the structure of modern music into one 45 minute track. The band draw your attention to the structural exploration by stripping back a lot of the things that you would expect from listening to conventional music. They rigidly keep to the sound of drums and guitar exploring a similar rhythmic style throughout the recording (to put it briefly it's intensly monotonous). The album starts with the same chord and very short drum section being played over and over for about 2 and half minutes, they then carry on in a similar style with longer and longer melodies, the track slowly and carefully emerges through more conventional phrases into, a totally un-repetitive sprawling insanity.
Death Comet Crew's 'This Is Riphop' is a really weird record from 1984. It's abstract hip hop made with conventional instruments, record decks, a TV and just whatever else they could find. Most of the tracks are centred off a really hard crusty beat, with all sorts of equally crusty sounds and manipulation being played over the top. It doesn't make for a particularly cohesive album, but in terms of it's sound, I have never heard anything like it.
Team Dyobi have an album called 'Choose Your Own Adventure' released on the brilliant Manchester based label skam, who have done some great little compilations and released a lot of good records. Team Dyobi are largely overlooked electronic pioneers dipping in and out of various electronic orientated genres to the point of having very much their own sound. There is a lot of glitch and acid on this recording, which makes for some really interesting results.
TOM HOCKNELL - DEMOS EDITOR
This month I appear to be chiselling away at the musical cultural coalface of, well, 1968. Good to see the Demos Editor so cutting edge. First up is Dusty Springfield's complete 'A and B sides 1963-1970'. What is there to say, other than my Mum is right. Dusty could melt a heart of glass, which is more than can be said for the Beatles (don't worry; I heard the agonised gasp- sorry.). Ol' panda eyes knew how to choose a tune, which is arguably as difficult as writing one. Her warmth and breathy range makes one glad it's autumn.
Moving into 1970 I'm listening to Colin Blunstone's 'One Year', again autumnal singer-song writing from the ex-lead singer of the Zombies. Someone should give this to James Clunt and the others, they'd give up, really they would. Shall we try it? 'Caroline Goodbye' makes you want to crawl into the speakers to get closer (though I wouldn't recommend it).
Ok, aware I need to find something near the stereo that's more recent, I find Nick Lowe's 'The Convincer', in particular 'She's got Soul'., a hymn to a woman we all should meet, if we haven't been lucky enough to have done so already. His conversational singing is backed up by gleeful Hammond organ, deliberated guitar and backing singers. This man could put a smile on a jilted lemon.
Since Bestival the Guillemots have made sense. Ok, so it took MC Lord Magrao to play guitar with a hair drier (who said I'm hard to impress), but it suddenly all made sense. After a few listens the album 'Through the Windowpane' is sublime, and if they avoid jazz doodle-leanings in the future the 2nd album could be a pop belter.
Lastly, heads up to Pet Shop Boys with their live album 'Concrete'. As the current BBC Eclectic Proms pits bands with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (amongst other pairings) the boys' gig in March with said Orchestra leads the way in live albums. Crisp production, gorgeous synth lines, crashing strings and immaculate pop songs, along with special guests Rufus Wainwright and Robbie put this heads above the usual live album nonsense (even if this is a double album)..
TOM HANNAN - EDITOR
The Camden Music and Video Exchange staff might be a miserable bunch but if you've a few minutes to spend, thumbing though their bargain vinyl always reveals some treats. As a West Ham fan I usually refuse to have anything to do with Arsenal, but when it's the name of the band Santiago Durango started up after the incendiary Big Black parted ways (and seeing as we beat 'em yesterday!) I make an exception, especially seeing as the four brutal tracks of shiny yet nasty industrial punk on 'Manipulator' set me back all of fifty pence. 'Factory Smog Is A Sign of Progress' is a communist slogan, the title of their only other EP, and worth checking out too. Be assured, the sound of Big Black was not all down to Albini.
Got back from a night out and put on Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska', mumbled to myself the lyrics to those fascinatingly stark, harrowing songs and thought about my Ma, who was very far away at the time.
Not far away at all though is the release of Jarvis Cocker's self titled debut solo album (Relaxed Muscle don't count), and it can't come soon enough. Seriously, the world will wet its pants for this - 'Black Magic' is especially stirring, and the rest of it is so good that recent internet Jarvhit 'Running the World' ain't even on it. Well, kinda.
'Turn on the Bright Lights' is indeed better than 'Antics', but it shouldn't stop you from loving that second Interpol album one heck of a lot. You won't have listened to it in a while. Put it on now that you're over the feeling of disappointment post-'Bright Lights' and you'll find it's actually a remarkable piece of work. As soon as that guy learns how to write lyrics we've got the perfect band on our hands.
I got a sneak peak at my Christmas present - The Clash's seven inch singles box - all 19 of their singles in their original artwork in a bloody box!. The woman won't let me play it 'til Dec 25th though. Can. Not. Wait.