…A MEASURE OF LIFE
17 Seconds Records continues apace…
Our second signing is the enigmatic Ex Lion Tamer, the project of the mysterious Tony T.
There will be a download single to come in the new year, ‘Neon Hearts’ with hopefully a free download to come before then.
Give him a listen and see what you think!
And go and make friends too, obviously…
Plus our first release, Aberfeldy’s ‘Claire’ single is record of the week on Iain Baker’s show on NME Radio. Yeah!
Deerhunter -’Microcastle’/'Weird era Cont.’
Deerhunter’s third album is their first on 4AD. This is not so much a double album, rather than a ‘bonus disc of brand new material [Weird Era Cont]…an album in its’ own right.
There are lots of great songs on this album, spread across the two discs. The problem is that it tends to be a little disorientating with the sheer arnge of stuff on here that it’s a bit much to take in in one sitting. The album is a fitting one for 4AD to release, with its’ overtones of sunny shoegazing (or dreampop, if you’re American). At times they remind this listener of the Dandy Warhols, at other times Big Star is the point that comes to mind.
Stand-out tracks here include ‘Activa’ and ‘Neither Of Us, Uncertainly.’ There’s bits here I will want to hear again, but I’m not sure that I feel the urge to keep playing the album in its’ entirety. And that’s not a reflection on the iPod generation, but rather on the fact that this is has great tracks which don’t quite hang together as an album.
***
Deerhunter -’Nothing Ever Happened.’ mp3
Microcastle/Weird era Cont. is out now on 4AD
According to this story, which was mentioned yesterday at NME, Orange Juice are reforming.
Does anyone know anything about this? Couldn’t find out anything at Edwyn’s site, but it would be great. Be interesting to know which members would be rejoining. Edwyn obviously, but what about Malcolm, Zeke, James…?
Orange Juice -’Blue Boy.’ mp3
Meursault -’Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues.’ (Song By Toad Records)
Wow. Not content with writing a fine blog and having some of the Scottish Capital’s finest bands round for sessions, Song By Toad has set up a record label.
And damn it, everyone’s favourite reptilian blogger has done it again. Not content with releasing the rather good Nightjar EP, SBTR have released one of the year’s finest albums. Damn you! Meursault have been plying their trade around the capital for a while now, and as their lineup has taken a while to settle, it has resulted in this stunning debut.
Call it folktronica, call it modern scottish; draw parallels with releases from Wounded Knee, Broken Records and even Swimmer One, whatever! This is a very strong, beautiful album. With 11 tracks in 39 minutes there is no flab. Instead, a wonderfully toned and tuned album that makes you want to hear it again and again.
Gorgeous tunes that you will want to play to everyone you know…what’s not to love? Messrs Bryant, Pennycook, MacLeod and calder have, with Mr. Toad, delivered what I believe to be one of the year’s best albums.
****1/2
Meursault -’The Furnace.’ mp3 (Alternative version for preview)
Meursault -’A Few Kind Words.’ mp3
Meaursault’s mySpace is here, check out just how good they are.
The album is available on iTunes now, and will be released on December 15 in physical format.
…and for more examples of Toad and meursault related work, click here
This Sunday marks Remembrance Sunday, in remebrance of Armistice Day 1918 ‘The eleventh hour on the eleventh day on the eleventh month.’ We did it in school, like a lot of people. I remember doing it aged about eight, via watching a programme called How We Used To Live, a show that looked at a family in Yorkshire.
A few years later, on a family holiday in France, we drove along passed the roads where the cemeteries are. Even as a twelve year old, it was quite sobering, and the picture at the top gives an idea of what it is like. The graves of thousands of young men, slaughtered for…?
For a long time, I considered myslef to be bordering on being a pacifist. In recent years, I’ve wondered whether I still would be. I would categorically have refused to fight in the Falklands War, or either of the Gulf Wars. These had nothing to do with humanitarian concerns and a lot more to do with muscle-flexing and oil, in the case of the Gulf. I like to think I would have fought against Hitler, and volunteered in the Spanish Civil War against Franco (the latter may have some rather ideological and romantic ideas, based on reading Laurie Lee and George Orwell). As for the First World War…did it achieve anything?
Eric Bogle wrote a song ‘No Man’s Land‘ that made John Peel’s Festive Fifty twice. Once as ‘No Man’s Land/Flowers Of the Forest’ by June Tabor in 1977 and later in 1984 as ‘The Green Fields Of France’ by The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Everytime I hear eiether version of this song I’m deeply moved, and reminded of the futility of war. Especially those that use young people as cannon fodder. I was appalled a few years back when it was revealed that the Army were still heavily recruiting around some of the porrest areas of Glasgow, near where I was working and where many kids were seriously disenfranchised. Oddly enough ‘Officer Class’ wasn’t being mentioned.
Check out Eric Bogle’s work, and other people’s covers of it. I also was lead to him through The Pogues (’And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda) and Billy Bragg (’My Youngest Son Came Home Today.’) Even reading the lyrics is frankly, pretty emotional.
June Tabor -’No Man’s Land/Flowers Of the Forest.’ mp3
The Men They Couldn’t Hang -’The Green Fields Of France.’ mp3
Thanks due to Steve at Teenage Kicks for his bringing these to my attention!
One of those moments on the radio last week, courtesy of none other than Tom ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ Robinson on his show on 6Music:
‘Clip from the radio of Aberfeldy’s single.’mp3 (Thank you, Dave!)
Side F/X -’Contraditions’ (self-released)
It’s the voice that grabs you about this record. Kim Cameron really does have a very impressive voice. Their myspace site for the ’sounds like’ bit says: ‘Alternative music - a blend of pop, rock, jazz, and even country! We sound a bit like Carly Simon, Natalie Merchant, Sheryl Crow, The Cranberries, Lisa Stansfield, Annie Lennox.’ Is this a bold statement? No, in a word. I’d add Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie and Chrissie Hynde to that list, too.
Whilst the production may be a little too slick in places for my liking, there’s no doubt that Kim’s voice is really pretty impressive. The tunes are pleasant enough, if not especially memorable, but the voice won’t leave you.
What I’d really like to do is to witness Kim and the band in a live setting, because I feel that that’s where they would really shine. And I hope they keep me up to date with what they’re doing, and I hope they produce a really raw, honest record. because that’s what vocals as special as this deserve.
***1/2 for the album
***** for Kim Cameron’s voice
I was very politely asked not to post mp3s so I won;t, but please check it out at
Side FX band’s myspace/website
Already the PR companies ( those who haven’t tried to stuff blogs, that is) are gearing up to promote 2009’s big releases.
As a big fan of scottish indie, the fact that Checkmate Savage, the debut LP from The Phantom band will be out at the end of January on Chemikal Underground.
It was recorded at Chem 19, the Delgados’ legendary studio, and features Paul Savage from Scotland’s Greatest Ever Band in the role of producer, engineer, and guiding force. It was also recorded at Franz Frdinand’s studio in Govan.
Whilst i have turned my nose up at some ridiculous press releases that have crossed the threshold of 17 Seconds Towers in the past the description of ‘Beefheart meets Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Neu! meets Nick Cave’ might actually be pretty accurate on the basis of what I have heard so far.
Alright, so I can’t vote in the US Presidential Elections.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on it. To any people who do have the option, please vote, and vote wisely. The President of the USA effectively has a massive impact on the rest of the world, in the way that being say, President of Ireland or Prime Minister of Australia just doesn’t have (or First Minister of Scotland, for that matter).
You know Obama is the right choice. And if anyone thinks someone non-American should’t be commenting, just remember how much impact a certain Australian has had on British politics for many years.
Here’s a song I thought was appropriate, and by the sounds of it, as been misunderstood and misappropriated for longer than Springsteen’s ‘Born In The USA.’
Woody Guthrie -’This Land Is your land.’ mp3
And remember: if you don’t vote, don’t bitch.
I’m playing the Yo Majesty LP, in the hope it will be the soundtrack of a brighter tomorrow…
Spiritualized -’Songs in A&E’ (Sanctuary)
I have to confess, this has been one of those albums on my ‘hmm, must get round to hearing’ rather like Primal Scream and Metallica, on the ‘I like the stuff I’ve heard by them over the last decade and more, cannot afford to buy it just yet’ list. And now I’m kicking myself at having, frankly, denied myself the pleasure.
Because, quite frankly, as The Wire had pointed out, this is their most compelling set for a decade. That album was the genre-busting psychedelic masterpiece Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Rather like many other records of the time, it was a fantastic record that did well, critically and commercially, and was not dissimilar in vein to records that followed by Mercury Rev (Deserter’s Songs and All Is Dream; Grandaddy’s The Sophtware Slump; and of course Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
And rather like the follow-up albums from many of these artists, Spiritualized’s next two studio albums Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace were good albums, but just not as amazing as we’d hoped they’d be. But this album is frankly, amazing. A gorgeous mixture of all that we have loved Spiritualized before. This confirms that Jason Pierce (or J. Spaceman, as he is credited on pretty much every Spiritualized album) is a genius. Genuinely a Brian Wilson for our times, who is trying to get the angelic music out of his head and down in the recording studio.
And from start to finish, the album does not let up. It never drags nor dips, and makes you want to go back and listen to it from start to finish again. Like many multi-layered albums it’s a headphone work that beenfits from being listened to closely as it yields more and more of its’ charms.
J. Spaceman is once again firing on all cylinders. Be sure to enter and be wowed.
****1/2
Spiritualized’s official website/www.myspace.com/spiritualized
The videos cannot be embedded as the code been disabled by request (why?!) but here are the links to go and watch ‘You Lie You Cheat‘ and ‘Soul On Fire‘
The tracks can also be streamed at myspace above.
Powered by WordPress