Some more covers for Friday

I’ve long championed White Heath on this blog, having loved thier early EP The Sea Wall, had them on my show on Fresh Air and put them on at Tigerfest last year. So I’m really pleased to be able to report that their debut album will be available from June 4.

Entitled Take No Thought For Tomorrow, the album was produced by Jim Sutherland, who helmed Aberfeldy’s Young Forever, amongst others. Released on Electric Honey (who gave us early releases from Belle and Sebastian, Biffy Clyro and Snow Patrol) the album features nine tracks:

Maker
Election Day
GG
Leviathan
7:38 AM
Sunday In Fragments
When The Watchmen Leave Their Stations
Past the Satellites, Into The Fray
So

‘GG’ is available as a free download.

<a href="http://whiteheath.bandcamp.com/track/gg">GG by White Heath</a>

You can also stream the following tracks:

Election Day by Jim Sutherland

7 38am by Jim Sutherland

When The Watchmen Leave Their Stations by Jim Sutherland

Past The Satellites, Into The Fray by Jim Sutherland

I’ll publish a review soon…

The return of Sons & Daughters

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Ed

sons-and-daughters

What a difference three years makes.

The last time I saw Sons & Daughters, in 2008 at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall, they had just released This Gift. Support acts that night were the Black Kids (then riding high on a wave of hype that ultimately didn’t deliver) and a then-unsigned Broken Records. How things change…

Anyway, Sons & Daughters are set to release their third album (if you only count Love The Cup as a mini-album) Mirror Mirror on June 13. The tracklisting is as follows:

Silver Spell
The Model
Breaking Fun
Orion
Don’t Look Now
Ink Free
Rose Red
Axed Actor
Bee Song
The Beach

Album opener track ‘Silver Spell’ has been available as a free download for a little while now (I know -but when it started circulating I was pretty wrapped up with a new baby), and now there is an Optimo remix doing the rounds as well – both free to download!

Enjoy…

Sons & Daughters – Silver Spell by DominoRecordCo

Sons & Daughters – Silver Spell (A JD Twitch Optimo Remix) by DominoRecordCo

Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny news

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Ed

sandy-denny_1

Part of my opening my mind to pre-punk music has been the joy of discovering Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson – not to mention the work they did together in Fairport Convention in the 1960s.

So…Two bits of news to share with you.

Firstly, nearly forty years after its’ release, Sandy Denny’s first solo album The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is being re-issued as a two CD deluxe set. According to the press release: ” Disc One of the deluxe edition features the original 1971 album with four bonus tracks. These include a band demo of ‘Next Time Around’, an early version of the song with Andy Johns at the helm, and a duet with Richard Thompson on Ernest Tubb’s ’Walking The Floor Over You’, both of which first appeared on last year’s acclaimed limited edition 19 CD boxed set. An unreleased instrumental version of the traditional ’Lord Bateman’ (left unfinished without Sandy’s vocal) appears here for the very first time. Disc Two brings together all the original songs on the album in an acoustic setting. Beginning with further rare demos from last year’s boxed set including: ‘The Sea Captain’, ‘The Optimist’, Wretched Wilbur’, ‘Crazy Lady Blues’ and an accappella demo of the traditional ‘Lord Bateman’, worked on during the album sessions. Also included are a further two traditional songs recorded for the BBC during this period, firstly ‘The Lowlands of Holland’ from a BBC session recorded for Bob Harris (sequenced here with another two BBC session performances of ‘Late November’ and ‘Blackwaterside’). And ‘Bruton Town’ taken from a BBC recording of Sandy ‘In Concert’, recorded at the Paris Theatre in March 1972 where the title track from the album, ’John The Gun’ and ‘Next Time Around’ are also performed.”

Watch live performances here of ” The North Star Grassman and the Ravens”, “Crazy Lady Blues” and “Late November” here (this is not embeddable, unfortunately).

Meanwhile, the very same day, Richard Thompson releases a four CD, 80-track box set entitled Live At the BBC, the tracklisting for which can be seen here. Many of the tracks feature his then-wife Linda.

The return of Bon Iver

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Ed

bon-iver

Following on from the rather fine For Emma, Forever Ago and the excellent Blood Bank EP, Bon Iver return with their (his?) sophomore album, entitled simply Bon Iver.

The album will be released on June 20, and this is the first single to be released from it, entitled ‘Calgary.’ This will get a physical release on 12″ on July 4.

You can stream it below – and if you sign up below, you can get a free download of the track.

The album tracklisting is as follows:

1. Perth

2. Minnesota, WI

3. Holocene

4. Towers

5. Michicant

6. Hinnom, TX

7. Wash.

8. Calgary

9. Lisbon, OH

10. Beth/Rest

…and just for good measure:

Album Review – TD Lind

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Ed

td-lind

TD Lind -‘The Outskirts Of Prosper.’ (Dramatico)

There’s a curiously old-fashioned approach to parts of this album. Whilst many of the singer-songwriters doing the rounds seem to be heavily indebted to the singer-songwriters of the early 1970s (James Taylor etc..) there’s aspects to this album by the UK-born, US-based singer which have far older aspects.

There’s a jazzy inflexion to album opener ‘Pushover Boy Blues‘, while ‘Last Train To Redemption’ has a rockabilly feel. The standout track here is ‘Goodnight From Hollywood’ which is definitely worth hearing, and stands as a bit of an anthem for those trying to make it in LA.

However, while the rest of the album is pleasant, heartfelt and perfectly adequate, there isn’t much on display here after several listens) to truly set him apart from so many of his peers. the songwriting is strong, however, and I wonder if the songs might have benefited from being more stripped down.

***

The Outskirts Of Prosper is out now on Dramatico.

Album review – Thurston Moore

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Ed

thurston-moore

Thurston Moore -‘Demolished Thoughts.’ (Matador)

So; another Sonic Youth-related album, a mere couple of months after the Youth’s soundtrack album Simon Werner A Disparu. Casual Youth fans may query whether this album is an improvisation-type thing or a more conventional album. People seem to get thrown by Thurston and co’s unconventionality. But it’s why I have loved them for more than twenty years.

See the impressive thing about this album – or one of them, anyway – is how Moore manages to take the singer-songwriter template and somehow transform it, puttylike, in his own hands. The result is that a) the genre does not feel tired and b) even minus the feedback, it is distinctively Thurston Moore.

Whilst there were certainly great moments on his last solo album, Trees Outside The Academy, this album is more focused and serves as a reminder to fans new and old why Moore is the master. A track like ‘Circulation’ is a key example; beautifully arranged, melodic and yet it is easy to see how as part of Sonic Youth’s catalogue the electric guitars would lick in. Meanwhile, on ”Orchard Street’ it is as if feedback has been scored for Orchestra…

Porudced by Beck, this album fits in nicely alongside recenet albums by both J macis and Kurt Vile (Us fans will get the chance to see the latter and Moore touring together this summer). Not because they are leftfield singer-songwriters (not labels you’d apply to Moore or Mascis!), but because they are albums that show there is new ground to be covered in this genre.

A welcome addition to moore’s already very impressive catalogue.

****

Demolished Thoughts is released on Matador on May 23.

Thurston Moore -‘Benediction.’ mp3

Thurston Moore -‘Circulation.’ mp3

A cover for Friday

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Ed

There’ll be some more of these later…but I thought you might like to hear this:

Low take on on Toto’s ‘Africa’ (is there an mp3 of this doing the rounds yet??)

The original is a total guilty pleasure

The return of Miaoux Miaoux

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Ed

miaoux-miaoux-2

Miaoux Miaoux, who I have featured here before, is set to return with an excellent new single ‘Hey Sound’/’Cloud Computer’ on May 23rd.

If you weren’t paying attention before, it’s great stuff and you are doing yourselves as disservice by not listening. Definitely for people who enjoy both Unicorn Kid and our very own X-Lion Tamer.

You can stream it below…two awesome slices of electronic pop that complement each other very well.

Miaoux Miaoux – Hey Sound! by miaouxmiaoux

Miaoux Miaoux – Cloud Computer by miaouxmiaoux

The launch night will take place at Glasgow’s Mono on May 24, featuring a host of excellent acts. The Japanese War Effort and Nevada Base support. The Japanese War Effort are signed to Song, By Toad Records, and Nevada Base’s remix of Fiction Faction’s A Fair Escape was the b-side to 17 Seconds Records’ first release of this year ‘Apparitions’ by Fiction Faction. Lloyd from Peenko will be DJing.

Forthcoming from Song, By Toad

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Ed

song

I’ve long been very supportive of what Matthew Young has been doing with his Song, By Toad blog and label -and indeed the favour has often been returned.

Amongst his latest signings are King Post Kitsch, who (his name’s Charlie, it would appear) his debut single next week. It’s a four-track single entitled ‘Don’t You Touch My Fucking Honeytone’ which is rather ace. I think it’s what the Hives might soundlike if they ingested lots of fizzy pop and hung out in Glasgow and tried to blend in, aftre losing their suits.

You can hear it here:

King Post Kitsch – Don’t You Touch my Fucking Honeytone by Song, by Toad

Meanwhile, the album The Party’s Over will be released soon. It may share its’ title with Talk Talk’s debut, but I suspect the similarity may well end there.

You can also downlaod an EP from earlier this year by visiting the Bandcamp here

Now, I like to think I’ve made it blatantly bloody obvious how good the stuff on the Toad label is (last year’s Top 50 albums on here had several entries from the label), but if you haven’t been paying attention, here is a sampler Matthew has made available:

Song, by Toad Records Sampler 2011 by Song, by Toad

Enjoy!

17 SECONDS

…A MEASURE OF LIFE

Monthly Archives: May 2011