The Last Battle have just released their new EP, The Springwell EP. Having issued their debut single ‘Ruins’ and their awesome album Heart of The Land, Soul
Of The Sea through us here at 17 Seconds, this is a self-release and very good it is too.
It contains five tracks, including a radical reworking of ‘Ward 119’ which was the b-side to ‘Ruins,’ and ‘Viv Nicholson’, all about the eponymous sixties Pools Winner who vowed she would ‘Spend, Spend, Spend.’ (And yes, she was on the cover of the Smiths’ ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.’)
Go and buy…you won’t regret it. Via the Bandcamp link at the top…or at Avalanche Records in person if you live in Edinburgh.
I feel way too close to the band to review this and give it a rating without being biased (or worse!) but it is awesome.
This is not on the EP – but it is a cover version of the Warren G and Nate Dogg track ‘Regulate.’
Those lovely chaps and chappesses, Kid Canaveral are in the middle of a busy time.
This week has seen them put out a new single ‘…And Another Thing!’ which comes complete with a remix from Found AND a cover version of King Creosote’s ‘Missionary.’ Last month saw The Las
t Battle EP launch (more about which very soon) where Kid Canaveral backed King Creosote as the support act for the Battle (and yours truly was DJING!)
Stream the single here:
This is available as a very limited cassette.
Also…they are releasing a vinyl edition of their awesome album
to the career, it’s fair to say that Faountains Of Wayne are probably still best known for their 2003 single ‘Stacy’s Mum.’ The band have described it as a trib
ute to The Cars. While there’s nothing on here that’s quite as instantly catchy as that, there’s a fair amount of decent tunes here, in the style of US new-wave flavoured pop that they have become known for.
The two singles so far ‘Richie and Ruben’ and ‘Someone’s Gonna Break your Heart’ are decent songs, while other tracks like ‘The Summer Place’ and ‘A Dip In The Ocean’ are gorgeous, too.
Occasionally it can get a bit samey -‘Hate To See You Like This’ feels like they are just going through the motions, for example -but this is a pretty solid album overall.
It’s not earth-chattering, but it’s Fountains of wayne doing well what they fo best -and if you can get a bit of sunshine this summer (easier if you don’t live in Scotland, I guess!) then this is a good soundtrack for it.
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Sky Full Of Holes is released on August 1 on Lojinx.
n a barrel. There are quite a few deserving targets. But these aside, there are a few things that do deserve praise. ‘Live and Let Die’ – best Bond Theme of the 1970s. Band On The Run. Much of the collaborative efforts that appeared on his and Elvis Costello’s 1989 albums, Flowers In The Dirt and Spike, respectively. ‘Another Day.’ ‘Hi, Hi, Hi.’ Wings may have had a stupid nam
e. They certainly suffered from being McCartney’s post-Beatles band, but they had their moments. Over the course of the 1970s, they proved themselves successful in their own right.
This album was McCartney’s first solo album in ten years, recorded in 1979 and emerging in 1980, by which time there had been the infamous Japanese bust and Wings seemed to have imploded. ‘Solo’ album is accurate -even Linda isn’t on here. It’s quite highly rated in McCartney circles -largely because it is full of gems. Album opener ‘Coming Up’ is genuinely funky – and reportedly John Lennon loved it.
There’s definitely a sense of what was going on in the post-punk climate filtering through. Instrumental tracks like ‘Frozen Jap (not, as thought, a dig at Japan for imprisoning him, as it was recorded before the bust -but perhaps a silly title) and ‘Front Parlour’ see Macca experimenting with synths and producing work which has more in common with Sheffield electronic acts of the time (pre Dare Human Lea
gue, Cabaret Voltaire) than might have been expected then or now.
There’s also ‘Temporary Secretary’ which has become one of those tracks that the hipsters like to pull out of thin air (see also ‘Was Dog A Doughnut?’ by Cat Stevens). This marries the funk of ‘Coming Up’ with early Soft Cell (think ‘Memorabilia.’) Th
is is worth the price of the album alone -but there’s other great stuff here.
Look: I’m not going to defend crap like ‘Ebony and Ivory,’ ‘The Girl Is Mine’ or ‘Mull Of Kintyre.’ But this album shows that McCartney did (and arguably still does) have an experimental side and that to assume Lennon was the only Beatle with an interest in the avant-garde and the experimenta was erroneous.
This is a treat of an album and well worth investigating. Now: anyone prepared to help me defend Back To The Egg?
k ‘Go Outside’ involves one of the most notorious -and ultimately tragic – cults ever: Jonestown.
Needless to say, there are those who have reacted negatively to the video. But the director Isaiah Seret has said: ‘For this music video we didn’t want to put a spin on the footage or the peoples lives—instead we wanted to re-tell and humanize their story. In order to achieve this we used a comb
ination of stock footage, visual effects and other tricks to embed the band into the historical footage. This was achieved through my collaboration with my visual effects supervisor Bill Gillman and my cinematographer Matthew Lloyd. Lastly, I am moved to say when we completed the video we were able to preview it for some of the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre, who expressed their app
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gig promoting, interviewed mlots of artists and had my own show on Fresh Air, the local student radio station. Oh, and doing 17 Seconds Records. This has seen me put out quite a few singles, EPs and albums. The thrill of holding a 7″ single or album you have put out (or seeing it on download services), hearing it on the radio, reviewed…STILL hasn’t worn off.
The West Country of England has given us some awesome music over the years: Electronic wonder courtesy of Aphex Twin; the three-pronged attack of Trip-Hop’s Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky; Muse’s m
Next week* will see the release of a 12″ single from Belle and Sebastian, entitled ‘Come On Sister’ which is not getting a digital release.
Its tracklisting is as follows:
Come On Sister (Tony Doogan mix)
I Didn’t See It Coming (Richard X mix)
I Didn’t See It Coming (Cold Cave remix)
Blue Eyes of a Millionaire
Cold Cave’s remix of ‘I didn’t see it coming’ can be downloaded v
