POTS #3 - November 2006
By: Thomas Hannan
CHARLIE POTTER - STAFF WRITER
As I write this I'm listening to Venetian Snares' most recent album 'Cavalcade of Glee & Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms'. It's by no means the best Venetian Snares album (to my knowledge that would be 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett'), but it's much better than many of the albums of its ilk nonetheless. Being a Venetian Snares fan is always good in that you get 3 albums a year all of a very high quality, but many admirers of his, myself included, are waiting for him to do something a touch more experimental.
This month I've also found myself listening to Ceephax's 'Selected c64 Tunes'. Those of you who don't know who Ceephax is beyond being Squarepusher's brother should either get 'Exidy Tours' or wait for a possible new album on Rephlex - the kid bro might even be better. This one is a little hard to explain but bear with me - as far as I understand it, these tracks are made on a Commodore 64, and Ceephax has selected over a hundred of his favourite of these tracks to download on his website. The files take up hardly any space but you have to download a specific player that plays .sid files. Worth the effort, promise. The tracks don't have an end, they just loop - you can set the player to move on to the next track after a length of time of your preference, but be careful as it's often hard to work out when the track has started looping. The tracks themselves date back to 1983 and a lot of the them are genuine Commodore computer game soundtracks. It may all seem like a joke, but if so, then perhaps the funniest thing about it all is that a lot of the tracks are incredibly cleverly composed.
I also rather enjoyed listening to 'Nevermind' by Nirvana of late. You may think I'm a crazy reactionary loon but put it on and you'll realise the second half of the album is incredible - 'Drain You' and 'Lounge Act' are amazing songs. Like many people my age (22 going on 67) I've been listening to this since I was 12 years old, and it remains one of the seminal albums from one of the main bands who made me want to devote my life to music.
TOM HANNAN - EDITOR
I've had many good times with Matt Tomiak, but the days between Sunday 12th and Tuesday 14th November 2006 will rank amongst the best. Us lads not only got to see childhood hero Bruce Springsteen play for three glorious hours in Wembley, but two days later, got to witness one of the defining live musical experiences of my (and I'd probably say our) lives, that being The Flaming Lips unfathomably incredible gig at the Hammersmith Apollo. I've made a pledge to myself to buy all their records, and started with this one - 'Hit To Death In The Future Head'. Boy, these guys like drugs. But they also like noise (the last track is a half hour long sonic collage), fantastic pop melodies, f**ked up vocals and Sonic Youth. And so do I.
From The Flaming Lips to a man they once acted as backing band to. You heard 'The Information' yet? It's a huge, sprawling, deep, messy and complicated record, but if you're willing to put in the effort you'll find it ranks amongst Beck's best. Imagine if 'Stereopathetic Soul Manure' had the production mindset of 'Guero' - basically, it's all over the place, but as slick as The Fonz. Eyyyyyyy.
I love when old people get better and better. Few do it, but people like Waits, Scott Walker and Nick Cave do, oh yes. The latter's double disc set 'The Lyre of Orpheus' and 'Abbatoir Blues' gets better with every listen, and in 'Hiding All Away' and the title track of that disc first mentioned has two of the greatest songs I'll ever hear. He's playing ATP in April. Incidentally, Charlie and I will see you there next week.
ALEX LEE THOMSON - LISTINGS EDITOR
Well, what a month... I've taken the leap from the comfort of Stoke to the big smoke of ol' London town (well, close) and as a result I've become nostalgic for my previous home. One immense name worth noting that's been spun by myself lately is Andy Gower, who resides somewhere between where an unpolluted Noel Gallagher and a mid 90s American singer / songwriter might. First impression would lead to believing this guy belongs on open mic nights down your local boozer but there's so much more to Gower than an empty string of half-thought melodies, as he is in every sense of the phrase an awe inspiring songwriter who could, and has, played some overwhelming shows with some top-ranking tunes and amazing stage presence. 'Stepped out of Line' has especially had some decent airtime throughout November thanks to its slow build of undertone muscle and spiralling guitars.
Continuing with artists you've probably never heard of but should have is South Street. I've fallen madly in love with these guys this month and with their blasting assortment of punk-rock masterminded hits that accompany them. 'Call In The Debts' has been a colossal anthem for me this November and I can't help but think that rock 'n' roll needs this band right now to cut through the contrived overindulgent piss that's polluting punk in Britain hopefully in the same way The Cribs and The Libertines did a few years ago.
My biggest track of November though is a wee tune by Youth Group. Their cover of Alphaville's 'Forever Young' is amazing and takes me back to when I first heard it around February / March of this year. It's a blissfully simple track that's twisted the heart of an old electro-pop song into a dire and tragic melancholy breach of loneliness, withdrawal and teenage depression. Besides being so wonderfully dramatic, it's also perfectly choreographed and arranged to the likes of Sigur Ros or Morning Runner making over four minutes on the Tube pass by with a strange sense that this song had been recorded just for me. It's a shame this version wasn't around a few years ago as it would have inevitable and undoubtedly become the soundtrack to my slipping away youth.
I've also been getting in touch with a long lost Lennon adoration of mine this week sparked by a rockfeedback article on his latest work (if you can call it that), meaning an endless stream of 'Down And Out' and 'Working Class Hero', including a strangely poetic rendition by Marilyn Manson. Other notable rekkids this month include The Feeling, Air Traffic, Sean Lennon, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and Klaxons, all of which have blown what remains of my mind in some small way.
TOM HOCKNELL - DEMOS EDITOR
At the risk of upsetting readers who may feel that the Demos Editor's pick of the month should include incubating bands conducting trans-genre experiments to an unstoppable glue sniffing teenage fan-base, I have to admit to listening to some music that's as cutting edge as the Tesco CD wall.
Faithless, who critics dismiss as bloated, stadium house as though that's a bad thing, have come up with lovingly compiled album 'To All New Arrivals'. Its subtle instrumentation and savvy collaborations with Kubb's singer, Harry Collier, Cat Power and even Robert Smith. Voices whisper and weave amongst the electronic mix of blips, beats, acoustic guitars and effects. While the raps are a little preachy and worthy and you'd not want to be stuck in a lift with them, it's a surprisingly gentle and rewarding trip. You'll notice I haven't mentioned Dido.
So, before I leave the chart wall, tired of being bustled by the trolleys of shoppers evidently planning to survive on advent calendars for the next month, I'd like to mention the passing popjesty of Take That's 'Wooden Boat' in which a certain break-dancing Jason Orange sings, accompanied by atmospheric guitar knitting, presumably while he does a head spin.
Otherwise I've been listening to hip hop's very own Des Lynam, Slick Rick and his languid delivery which could drop the habit of a nun. Perhaps I need to do some soul searching. Either way his observant and wry rapping makes you shush whoever's in the room, which makes it unsuitable for listening to covertly in professional meetings, or the classroom.
Lastly and most importantly it's the Trembling Blue Stars. They're the band I probably regret coming to late the most. Bobby Wratten worked with Ian Catt (a close associate of Saint Etienne) on this album of English Pastoral pop, which emerged in 1996, without a scene and evidently not caring. Its lush arrangements, jangly guitars and a soft sense of utter sincerity are something that strike every time and expect one of their albums to feature here each month, until his album re-issues dominate Tesco's chart wall. His influences, from the Beach Boys to Kraftwerk, (who in turn admired the Californian surfers), The Smiths, and New Order are all in here, but only in terms of passing caress. It's an album unafraid to use a soft pallet to remonstrate Wratten's disappointment at the failure of enduring love and the absence of his muse, Anne Mari Davis, whom had been in his previous (Peel-Championed) band The Field Mice. Truly special.
KERI KENNEDY - STAFF WRITER
'Yours To Keep' is the surprisingly brilliant solo album from The Strokes guitarist. Well, not that surprising to me, for whom The Strokes can do no wrong. Sure, some of it sounds exactly like his band, 'Holiday' and 'Back To The 101' being two in particular, but the opener 'Cartoon Music For Super Heroes' is a lovely Beach Boys-esque lullaby that Julian Casablancas couldn't pull off. Something to keep a Strokes fan happy between albums.
'Kick Up The Dust' from Canada's Blood Meridian has been on my iPod for ages and seeing the light of day rather a lot lately. Anyone who caught the last Black Keys tour might have been early enough to see Blood Meridian supporting. A collection of bittersweet dark songs, 'Work Hard, For What' is one to listen to on the way to work when you're in a bad mood. Singer/songwriter Matthew Camirand sums up their sound perfectly: "country and blues music by way of people who learned to play guitar from listening to Ramones records."
MICHAEL LEWIN - STAFF WRITER
To my knowledge, I have no enemies (anyone reading this who knows otherwise, however, kindly please inform me). That is, I have no enemies of the sentient, or at least animated kind.
I do, however, regularly declare war on the arbitrary, the intangible or day-to-day utensils. Such things tend to be intractable and malicious - hell bent on destroying my life in the most petty of ways, they inflict upon me moods that no extant human could even consider intentionally causing, as empathy and conscience would lead them to implode with black self-loathing. And yet these objects, these notions and these words - again and again with an implausible regularity - transgress their socially agreed-upon functions in order to wreak derisive, mocking misery on my slumped and defeated shoulders.
One example of such would be unpredictable cooking equipment.
Another is the month of November.
Every year, without fail, November removes from me all hope in a happy, contented existence, a fork in the eye of my dreams. By December everything's rosy, life's just darling! But not for these 30 cursed days.
I'd intended to plan, formulate strategies immense and unstoppable to beat dat ho of a month down. But I forgot; there I was, dancing like an ass's ankle on hallowe'en, and the clock struck midnight. My antagonist appeared with the change of the hour, and I was naked, there to be masticated by that goddam month again. I did the only thing I was capable of - I spun on my heels there on the dancefloor, ready to take screaming flight from the room...
But, as though a gift from God, there appeared a friend; slurring drunkenly divine words as he clasped me on the shoulder.
"Mate," he said, "like, how stoked are ya that there's a new three disc Tom Waits album out in, like a week or two? Mate, I'm pished, and like, I love you. I mean, like, love. Let's go to the toilet."
I hadn't known (about Tom Waits, I mean, not my friend's confusion - he does this to everyone). Suspicion and then fear gripped me - a heavenly gift to conquer my foe, or some base trick to finish me off, a lie or... worse! A miss from the hero, a faltering mistake at the last to tarnish his impeccable veneer? That, in particular, I couldn't recover from. It would be November's most glorious moment.
I could keep writing like this, but everyone would get pissed off so I'll cut it short and you can read other people's recommendations: it's awesome. I haven't listened to anything else all month.
November be damned.