Monthly Archives: January 2012

Grinderman bow out in style

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At the end of 2011, Nick Cave announced that Grinderman, his band who have released two albums, will be at least on hold, and that there are plans for a new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album. But what they will be doing is leaving us with a compilation called Grinderman 2 RMX, which will feature ‘a collection of remixes, reinterpretations & collaborations based on the songs contained in the band’s 2010 critically celebrated album Grinderman 2.’

The tracklisting looks like this:

Grinderman / Fripp – “Super Heathen Child”
A Place to Bury Strangers – “Worm Tamer”
Nick Zinner – “Bellringer Blues” (exclusive)
UNKLE – “Hyper Worm Tamer”
Joshua Homme – “Mickey Bloody Mouse”
Cat’s Eyes with Luke Tristram – “When My Baby Comes”
Barry Adamson – “Palaces Of Montezuma”
Silver Alert (featuring Matt Berninger) – “Evil”
SixToes – “When My Baby Comes” (exclusive)
Andy Weatherall – “Heathen Child”
Factory Floor – “Evil”
Grinderman – “First Evil”

This will be out on Mute Records on March 12.

This is the track doing the rounds as a stream – a remix from Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (who might also be back with us soon) of ‘Bellringer Blues’:

Grinderman – Bellringer Blues (Nick Zinner Remix) by Mute UK

Presenting…Kalle Kaasinen

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I receive a huge amount of submissions here at 17 Seconds – which is a privilege, but it does mean that there is an awful lot of stuff that I cannot get through. The best thing to do is usually to try and say something which will get my attention. A few years back, The Wildhouse put Josef K as the subject in his introductory email to me, knowing full well this would get my attention.

It did! And a month or so ago, I received an email from one Kalle Kaasinen of Joenssu, Finland, in which he mentioned his love of Suede, early Smashing Pumpkins and Jeff Buckley. It took me back fifteen years – and I gave all four tracks on the soundcloud a listen. He does indeed mix those acts together to produce something that mixes the sweetness of indie po with the let’s get dirty in our own way of both Suede and the Pumpkins (yes, those bands both sounded different. Listen to this and hopefully you will get the point).

I don’t know much more about him than that, but enjoy this music for what it is.

ILME by Kalle Kaasinen

Presenting…The Occasional Flickers

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Edinburgh-based act The Occasional Flickers released their second album Home Is A Four-Letter Word back in November, but it’s only been, umm, today, that they’ve crossed my radar.

I say Edinburgh-based, as their facebook page describes them as being a pop band that began in Athens, Greece, but is now based in Edinburgh, Scotland (which is quite fitting, as Edinburgh is often described as the ‘Athens of the North’). Lead by Giorgos Bouras, the band are something of a collective, including Bart Owl of eagleowl, and indeed his bandmate Malcolm Benzie contributes to the album, too.

If this band remind me of any other act – and I mean this as a compliment – it’s probably Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Like that lamented act, this is a gorgeous pastoral album…and evokes a spirit far away from the harsh, dark Scottish winter that we’re currently enduring. That, of course, shouldn’t detract from the fact that the band are having an album launch this coming Friday (January 6) at the Third Door in Edinburgh, with support from the Second Hand Marching Band.

I wish I’d heard this album before now. Don’t make any excuses – just listen to it, realise how bloody great it is, and then go and buy it.

That’s an order.

occasional-flickers

Album Review – First Aid Kit

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First Aid Kit -‘The Lion’s Roar.’ (Wichita)

First Aid Kit are the sisters Klara and and Johanna Söderberg, who first came to prominence when they were only in their teens. This is their second album, the follow-up to 2010’s The Big Black & the Blue.

Though they hail from the southern suburbs of Stockholm, the sisters know their Americana roots. To this end, the album was produced by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, and the album’s final track ‘King Of The World’ was co-written by none other than Connor Oberst.

Despite what you might take from the above, there’s none of the excessive Bright Eyes droning on, nor is this country sung in the style of Abba. This album isn’t pioneering, but right from the opening title track, this is a delightfully warm album, that has had several plays already round these parts. And if the chorus of Emmylou doesn’t melt your heart ‘I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June/And you’ll be my Gram and your Johnny too’ well, you either have no heart and/or know absolutely nothing about country music. But they do also name-check Stockholm in the song, so they do have a sense about where they have came from, geographically as well as musically.

Fancy something different from run of the mill music? Why not give First Aid Kit a listen?

***1/2

The Lion’s Roar is released by Wichita on January 23.

First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar by Wichita Recordings

The sound of 2012

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A few weeks ago, disgusted at what much of the BBC Sound of 2012 was promising, I and several other blogs were approached by Andy Von Pip of the Von Pip Musical Express and asked to put forward our own nominations for the alternative sound of 2012.

Now only one of my five nominated acts got through – but democracy has achieved far worse things than that so here they are:

friends

1. Friends

Straight outta Brooklyn, Friends released two singles last year, ‘Friend Crush’ and ‘I’m His Girl.’ Now they may have chosen a name that is going to make Googling them very hard, but I think the two singles so far are great. Check out ‘I’m His Girl’:

Friends – I’m His Girl by LuckyNumberMusic

theme-park

2. Theme Park hail from London. So far they have released two singles ‘A Mountain We Love’/’Wax’ and ‘Ghosts’/’Milk’.

Ghosts by Theme Park

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3. Beth Jeans Houghton was someone I was aware of for much of last year – but when I finally heard her I was very pleasantly stunned by what I heard. Having released a number of singles over the last few years, her debut album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose (yes, you did read that right) is out on February 6.

Beth Jeans Houghton – Dodecahedron by Mute UK

french-wives

4. French Wives I have long championed on this blog. They have released four singles so far – of which ‘Numbers’ is the latest and according to their website is the first track to be taken from their album Dream of the In Between. They have been working with producer Tony Doogan, in summer 2011 at Castle of Doom studios in Glasgow, and it is released in March 2012.

Numbers by French Wives

daughter

5. Daughter, led by Elena Tonra, released two EPs in 2011. Again, I have to put my hand up and say this was a name I reognised (I just get so much stuff sent to my inbox I have to gamble and it doens’t always pay off), but I’m glad I have listened now.

Remember folks, you can stream these artists above and go and buy their music. And it would be good to know what you think.

The Blog Sound of 2012 was masterminded by Andy Von Pip (as I said above – were you paying attention?), and as well as yours truly, the following blogs were involved:

Breaking More Waves
My Band Is Better Than Your Band
God Is In the TV
Sweeping The Nation
The Recommender
Faded Glamour
Drunken Werewolf
Flying With Anna
Not Many Experts
Under-classed Idle Ideas
Sonic Masala
Mudkiss
The Ring Master
Both Bars On
Music From A Green Window
Dots and Dashes
The Daily Growl
And Everyone’s A DJ
Kowalskiy
Just Music I Like
Cruel Rhythm
The Blue Walrus
Music Fans Mic
Eaten By Monsters
Seven Sevens
Unpeeled
Nu Rave Brain Wave
Peenko
Music Liberation, and last but not least…
Song, By Toad

Album Review – Howler

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Howler -‘America Give Up’ (Rough Trade)

..and here they come, the latest hotly tipped great white indie guitar hopes, straight outta Minneapolis.

The general concensus amongst those many of those who profess to like their indie is that indie is ‘in crisis.’ Much of this depends on what you define as ‘indie.’ Personally speaking, I think it’s quite encouraging that the best-selling album of 2011, Adele’s 21, was released on XL (the indie label who have also given us the likes of The Prodigy, Friendly Fires, The Horrors and M.I.A.), and that the critics’ choice of 2011, PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, was very much a recordborn of the indie scene. If anything, what has been suffering is straight-ahead chart indie – largely because a lot of it really wasn’t very good.

So: the questions to be asked of Howler (signed to long-running, even in its second incarnation, indie Rough Trade) is are they any good? Can they turn the fortunes of indie around? They first appeared on most people’s radar last summer with the release of their five-track EP, This One’s Different, which certainly generated a lot of praise in both printed and online media. The two outstanding track from that release (the title track and ‘Told You Once’) reappear here.

If you are looking for innovative indie, then you probably are not going to find it here. However, if you are looking for an upbeat album to beat away those post-Christmas blues, then this debut LP hits the spot. Whilst much of it is in the vein of both The Strokes (who are labelmates) and The Vaccines (who they toured with just before Christmas), there are signs of where the band may be developing their sound from here. ‘Too Much Blood’ is slower and dreamier than much of what else is on offer here, giving you an idea of what The Ramones might have sounded like if they’d decided to sound like the Velvet Underground. There’s also a hint of surf guitar on ‘Back Of Your Neck’ and ‘Free Drunk’ suggests they may just be discovering the likes of My Bloody Valentine and the Mary Chain.

It’s too early to tell whether Howler are going to change the fortunes of indie around. However, this is a fun album, which doesn’t mess around (eleven songs in just under thirty-two minutes) and is worth hearing.

***1/2

America Give Up is released on January 16 on Rough Trade.