Next week will see the next 17 Seconds release…or rather, two.

17SEC6A is the four track EP, cunningly entitled the Neon Hearts EP, which includes the following tracks:

Neon Hearts
Life Support Machine
Tugboat
I Said Stop

The first two tracks made up the first, download-only single by X-Lion Tamer in March. The last two make up the simultaneous release – 17SEC6B, which is the ‘I Said Stop’/’Tugboat’ download single, released on Monday at all good download stores near you.

And yes, ‘Tugboat’ is the Galaxie 500 song.

You can stream it all over at X-Lion Tamer’s myspace. Go and make friends with him if you haven’t already. And with us, too, obviously.

X-Lion Tamer willl be playing on Tuesday September 8 at the Electric Circus, Edinburgh along with The Pineapple Chunks. I haven’t seen them live yet, but have read good things about them over at Song, By Toad

The Pineapple Chunks -‘Look Back In Horror.’ mp3

The Pineapple Chunks -‘Art Storage.’ mp3

X-Lion Tamer will also be supporting Nite Jewel as part of her European tour at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh on October 2.

Hefner -‘We Love The City’ (re-issue) (Belka)

Hefner’s third album, We Love The City from 2000 is viewed by the band as being their creative and commercial peak. I’d read about them in NME two years previously and had fallen head over heels in love with their debut album Breaking God’s Heart. John Peel had supported them considerably – they recorded no less than ten sessions for his programme between 1998 and 2001, and had ten festive Fifty entries.

This release saw them up their game considerably – and to listen to their debut back to back with this is to feel that it does very much feel that they had hit their stride. As the press release acknowledges, they’d moved on from their ‘broken indie-folk sound in favour of a bouncy, urban blue-eyes soul.’ Engineer Miti Adhikari didn’t want a production credit, but helped shape the album as did the band’s John Morrison on the arrangements. Darren Hayman’s love of the Beach Boys came to the fore, rather than just being paid lip service to.

Hefner always seemed like they could have been a c-86 band, which is shown partlly by having Tallulah Gosh/Heavenly’s Amelia Fletcher on backing vox, and one of the entries in that year’s Festive Fifty, the bluntly matter-of-fact ‘The Day That Thatcher Dies.’

In much the same style as last year’s re-issue of The Fidelity Wars, here the original 12-track album is expanded into a fantatsic 39 track double CD, including demos and the remixes of the singles done by the likes of Piano Magic and the Wisdom Of Harry.

A great third album, re-issued and bolstered like great re-issue packages should be.

****

We Love The City will be re-issued by Belka on October 5.

Hefner’s website

Hefner -‘Good Fruit’

Pastels/Tenniscoats -‘Two Sunrises’ (Geographic)

I’ve been waiting for this album to come for ages…

Back in May 2007, I was excited to finally see The Pastels, primarily because I loved their music, and also because it meant I would finally have seen all four of the bands still together who had featured on the c86 compilation (the others being Primal Scream, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Wedding Present). They played as part of the (late, much-lamented festival) Triptych. They were joined by the Tenniscoats, a Japanese band that (to my shame) I had not heard of, then.

They were working on an album together…and two years later it has finally arrived and it has been worth the wait. Put simply, this is one of the best albums I have heard this year, so good that I’ve already played it twice today. Stylistically it fits in nicely with Pastels albums like thier soundtrack to The Last Great Wilderness.

If I had to sum this album up in one word it wuld be ‘Sublime.’ It’s been pouring with rain today, and my mood’s been low, but when this has been on the iPod, it’s helped my spirit to soar. It’s an album that’s clearly been put together with care and is a true collaboration rather than the vogie for trying to email things in from as far across the globe.

As you would expect, there are some famous collaborators on the album; Gerard Love and Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub, Bill Wells and Tom Crossley of International Airport’s flute. There’s a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘About You’ (not the Teenage Fanclub song) and the spirit of Orange Juice is over much of the album.

Dammit, what more could you ask for?

****1/2

Pastels/Tenniscoats -‘Vivid Youth’

Two Sunsets is released on Geographic on September 7.

Julian Plenti -‘Julian Plenty Is…Skyscraper.’ (Matador)

So…just in case you hadn’t realised, this is Paul Banks from Interpol. The press release with this album from Matador makes no mention of Interpol, presumably so that it’s considered on its’ own merits (and because the last Interpol album wasn’t anywhere near as good as the first two).

But the good news is that Banks/Plenti has got his inspiration working again and this is certainly not tracks that the rest of the band thought weren’t good enough to put out under the Interpol name (mind you, they’d hardly be likely to put that in the press release either). When Interpol first appeared near the beginning of the decade, I was one of many who felt that here was a band who’d been almost designed for them, wearing their influences – chiefly The Cure, The Smiths and Joy Division – very proudly on their sleeves. Thing is, while the voice remains the same, the record sounds more American, like he has found not only his own singing voice but his own space.

Several listens later, I’m really enjoying this album, regardless of who he might be a member of. It’s a fantastic collection of songs with no fat on them, no self-indulgence and clocks in at around 37 minutes. The reassurance is that this artist and this album stands on its’ own merits. I still have no idea what the title is meant to mean, but this is a sound album nonetheless. Right from the opening beats of album opener ‘Only If You Run’ here is an album that deserves to do well, and deserves to be heard.

***1/2

Julian Plenti website

Julian Plenti -‘Games For Days.’

Julian Plenty Is…Skyscraper is out now on Matador