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January 29 Yes pop is back blah blah blah but I can't stop listening to this songI prefer it to Sleepyhead by far. Passion Pit - 'I've got your number'
Playlist: Passion Pit, Smashing Pumpkins January 28 Interview - Sky LarkinIf there's one new band I'm really digging in '09 it's probably Sky Larkin. For me they carry on a similar kind of thread as Rainer Maria and Sleater Kinney with a much more 'experimental indie' sound which is almost like the whole Arts & Crafts/Canadian thing (and they actually cite Broken Social Scene as a major influence, so there you go). Anyway, their debut album 'The Golden Spike' is out next month on the might fine Wichita Records. I sent them some questions and here is what Doug (bassist) and Nestor (drummer) had to say for themselves: 1) While it might not be the same scale as Little Boots etc, your album definitely seems tipped as 'one of those to watch' out for in '09. How do you feel about making onto these kind of lists? Well we appeared on a few of these lists last year, and it's better to take them with a little pinch of salt. It's a nice compliment when people have faith in you, but some names that appear on these lists are never heard from again, so in no way does it mean that we can consider our work done. 2) Who would you like to see get bigger in 2009? Johnny Foreigner and Wild Beasts are bands that we've played with since the beginning and both seem to be on the brink of being huge. Although widely praised in their own scene they both keep missing out on commercial success, although this may not necessarily be a bad thing. I'd also say Dinosaur Pile-up and Pulled Apart by Horses, but I think this is probably going to be their year anyway!
There are too many bands to list musically, but in the way they work, Broken Social Scene are a massive influence to all of us. Other favourites that get regular play in the van are Horse the Band, Neon Neon and Why? to name but a few. 4) I think there are a lot of good new UK bands around right now; do you think it's a good time for new UK music? It's a good time for more left-field music. People have got bored of the lad-rock movement and there's a desire for something a little bit more interesting in the main stream, like Los Campesinos! and Wild Beasts. Also it seems that people no longer seem afraid to get their hands dirty. Instead of waiting for it to be served to them, they'll happily root around for a band that might not otherwise have seen the light of day, and that is very promising indeed. 5) I've been asking a few bands if they're taking any measures to cut back and save money in the recession. Are Sky Larkin making any cutbacks? Well, we're actually pretty thrifty anyway seeing as there is only three of us! We have always driven around in our own van and over the past few months we have learnt how surprisingly easy it is to live off the rider!
Sky Larkin - The Matador acoustic: 6) Did you guys choose the producer for your album? What's your approach to producers/production; did you want to go for someone of a slightly bigger league, in Seattle etc? There were a few names that came up when we were looking for a producer. Wichita came to us and and said (in yet another example of how wonderful they are as a label) "we're going to send you to the States to make an album, see who you want to work with and we'll try and make it happen". So we went through our CDs and John Goodmanson's name kept popping up. There were a couple of guys that we'd though of, but we'd heard so many good reports about John, the way he works and how nice a guy he is so he was the obvious choice in the end. We've worked with a couple of guys before and they've been great in their own way, Andy Ramsay (who did a couple of singles) brought a lot of experimentation to the sound for example. But in the end John had produced so many respected guitar albums, and we felt we needed to be away from distraction so we could focus on what we were doing. Also, there was NOTHING in our apartment so we spent most of our waking hours in the studio to retain our sanity as well as record an album. (Plus we got to go to Seattle. So, Win.) 7) You've been around for a few years so does now feel like the right time to be releasing an album etc? Do you feel like you've 'paid your dues'? Although we've been playing together for a couple of years, Katie was at university in London and Doug was in Scotland so we've only been playing regularly for a year or so. We have always had a healthy work ethic in that we drive ourselves around and organise as much as we can, so having a bigger van and a driver for the first time recently (on tour in Europe with Los Campesinos! and Lovvers) felt very odd and very nice at the same time! The album is a collection of songs that have been written at various times since we formed the band, and particularly after signing to Wichita Records it felt like the right time to record them definitively. The album is a summation of all the effort we've put into getting to where we are and the reception to the album will hopefully pay testament to that. Of course, this is where the hard work really begins but to be honest we can't wait! 8) This whole 'Leeds scene thing' seems to have subsided a bit over the past couple of years. Do you feel part of a 'scene' there? Are you part of any scene? Within Leeds, in an area called Hyde Park, there always has been this hugely supportive community, as opposed to a 'scene' which just sounds selective. With two big Universities, numerous colleges and a lot of artistically minded people as well as exceptional music venues, there is a constant melting pot of ideas. Anywhere you go you end up bumping into so many different bands it's hard to avoid them! In particular, the Brudenell Social Club is right in the heart of the area and that has a great promoter (hi Nathan!) who puts on an amazing spread of bands. It can be Bingo one night and Explosions in the Sky the next.
Touring Europe and America, festivals, more touring, more touring, and then recording the new album, then more touring with a few releases thrown in for good measure - repeat ad infinitum. Ha, we can't wait! 10) Finish this sentence, 'the problem with the music industry today is...' That some of the best bands never get seen or heard, hopefully this will soon change. (and that bassists in indie bands think it's ok to use Latin terms in interviews. Sorry.)
Playlist: Trail Of Dead
January 27 Muxtape is back!Admittedly, I didn't use it loads first time round, but now Muxtape is back, free of its legal issues and licensing problems, and it's now defined as 'a minimalist platform for bands to promote Dan Deacon, Girl Talk and Of Montreal are among the 12 artists already on board. It's all beta and early days but I have decided the fact it's back is A GOOD THING. Playlist: Van Pelt, The Acorn January 26 We are not Men of UnitusThere are some British bands which seem to have been around since the dawn of time. Men of Unitus are one such band. I have no idea when I first saw them live, how many times I've seen them (at least twice I think) but they seem to have played at many-a-gig and just generally been AROUND for a while. Regardless of all this, they played in Reading on Saturday with Holy State and have released an album 'Gland of Hope & Glory' on No Lite Records. Playing in a venue which on the surface looks like an All Bar One-esque gastro pub gone a bit posher, Men Of Unitus get somewhere close to getting the local Reading lads out boozing on a Saturday night into their riff-laden, thunderous noise-rock. I'm not sure whether they completely succeeded, but I thought they were really rocking. Men Of Unitus - 'Gland of Hope and Glory' live
Playlist: My Bloody Valentine
January 22 Hip new band I dig # 9843 - ObitsObits feature Rick Froberg, he of the distinctive vocals in Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu. Whadda dude. They've recently signed to Sub Pop which is LOVELY news and have an album coming out in March. They also had a 7" which sold out so now they have to re-press it. I guess they sound quite close to Hot Snakes in some respects but it's less garage-y and a tad more rock-n-roll or even punk. I don't know. You can listen to the two songs from their 7" on their Last.fm. Obits live:
Playlist: Obits, Minutemen, Coalesce
January 21 Lol, it's the future of the internet!If you didn't think that Facebook, Myspace and Last.fm were enough, digital marketers are now wetting their pants over two more websites which are 'going to change the online landscape for music' or something equally crass. Twitter is perhaps most commonly known as the site where Facebook status updates become obsolete and you're not doing it properly unless you're following @stephenfry. As of today I have 101 followers and I actually really enjoy it, although I think there is a cap to its appeal and people using it to just regurgitate their RSS feeds can go DIAF. In some web-marketing stroke of genius that probably gets bloggers excited, @thesonicyouth have been Tweeting about their new album. I am going to attempt to strike up a Twitter dialogue and ask them when they're touring next. In other tech news, I finally got ruddy Spotify working. You know, the website that is kinda like Last.fm, but it's not, but it is, and did the clever thing of making it invite only in Beta so geeky music heads get whipped into a frenzy and start fighting for invites. So far I've listened to a DiS-esque 'where to start with....' playlist, as well as albums by Devo, Death Cab For Cutie and the Jesus & Mary Chain. I really need to be hooked up with more playlists though so HELP A GIRL OUT. (I will probably make a Holy Roar one if the tracks are actually on it). Playlist: Spotify Stuff
January 20 Big ups for Beatcast.tvBeatcast.tv is, by its own definition, an 'independent channel for independent music'. Which boils down to filming ace bands live at gigs and making some amazing videos with it. Right now on site they've got stuff from Brontide, Dananananaykroyd, Johnny Foreigner, and loads more. If nothing else, it's brilliant to have professionally shot videos for bands, rather than the grainy ones with crappy sound shot by some dude's mobile phone you end up watching on Youtube. More than that though, you can make playlists and pick favourites so you can sit and watch the vids all day long. YAY! Apparently I can't embed their videos because Spaces doesn't like them but click here to watch Brontide being amazing at New Slang, in November last year. Playlist: New Rolo Tomassi tracks
January 14 Interview: BlakfishThe first time I heard and saw Blakfish was YEARS ago. These days they're putting out releases on Big Scary Monsters and touring relentlessly. They play a type post-hardcore which is both off-kilter and melodic, with a tendency to erupt and burst at times you're not expecting it. I like that. They're currently living it up in the studio in Seattle right now so I sent them some interview questions. 1) You're in Seattle right now recording. How is that? Who is your favourite band from Seattle? Recording is good, we're going a bit stir crazy as we're staying in the studio. We get up and start tracking pretty much straight away, then maybe have a few beers, go to sleep, get up and start all over again. We saw an awesome band the other night called 'Wild Orchid Children' they were amazing. 2) You like touring A LOT. Where was your best gig of 2008? And your worst? We played so many shows last year it's really hard to remember what was good and bad. I remember Bonefest being hilarious, we started drinking far too early and it all got pretty messy. The first time we played Cork was pretty incredible too. I can remember a few bad ones too, I think Plymouth on the Shapes tour was quite dreadful. It felt like it took us about 10 hours to get there, then all our gear was on the frits and we played to 3 drunk football fans, bo**ocks. 3) As it's the beginning of the year lots of magazines and bands have been tipping their new bands to watch in 2009. What bands would you like to see do well this year? There are loads of bands that deserve to do well this year. If I list a load and miss some off I'll just feel bad. The scene in the UK is starting to really get an identity, 4) How's things in Birmingham these days? I used to live there. Didn't one of you used to do the sound in Sruffy Murphy's?! Yeah I (Sam) used to work there, that was a long time ago. It's been about 2 years since I set foot in there. What a relief! To be honest Birmingham isn't the best for live shows, if you're not in with the Capsule (Birmingham promoters) crowd, which we aren't, there isn't many folks that come out. We have our close friends and a few others but that's about it. It's funny that we can go to Leeds or Kingston and it's more like a hometown show! 5) What with the recession and everything, how are Blakfish saving money? Are you making any cutbacks as a band? Yeah we decided to record in America which cost us £2000 more than we thought it would, but funnily enough that is cheaper than the UK. We found that if you sleep it's very difficult to spend money and that beer is a good replacement for food. 6) Did you make any new year's resolutions? Have you kept them? Not really. I don't know how many individual ones we've made. We kind of live by the moto "If it's not broke, then don't fix it." 7) Someone on DiS recently referred to you as a hardcore band. I don't think you're a hardcore band, really. How would you describe your music? We prefer to be know and a wedding and/or funeral band, pretty much any religious function. We really do need to get a concrete answer to this question as we're asked all the time and just normally come up with something stupid. I think we try and take "hardcore" elements if that's what you want to call it and mix in the best from all genres of music, you should check out the blues explosion on the album. 8) I like how your song 'Preparing for guests' is about cleaning the house. Was this song inspired by real events? Do any of your other songs have weird subject matter? 9) Finish this sentence 'the problem with the music industry today is....' us.
Playlist: Godspeed
January 13 Primavera announce more bands and a Pitchfork stageWell, Pitchfork co-curated an ATP, so Primavera had to go and do one better and let them have a stage at this year's festival. Some people seem unimpressed with this, but I'm all for it. As long as there's no Deerhunter though. The first thing I think of when I hear the word Pitchfork is 'Deerhunter', and I'm not too fussed about seeing them. No sign of Deerhunter as yet, although the festival has announced the following bands are confirmed to play, among others. Only 4 and a half months to go... Wavves - Out of all the other sunny, fuzzy, pop, noise rockers (could I throw any more words in there?), Wavves are a cool choice. Vivian Girls - Well seeing as I missed all of their 63 shows in London last year I might actually catch them live. The Bug - The album launch party for 'London Zoo' was such a shambles so it'll be good to see them live somewhere where the sound doesn't cut out every 5 minutes. The Mae Shi - Will I enjoy them? Will my opinion of them ever mange to improve? Will anyone care?!
Other confirmations include Bowerbirds, Ponytail, Crystal Stilts & Antlers (no Castles, Method or Skulls though), The Tallest Man on Earth and Plants and Animals. Read more about them all and improve your Spanish here.
Playlist: Sonic Youth, Eat Skull
January 12 Bands stealing other bands' wardrobes, part 1 - The Shins & Sky LarkinI noticed this on my Last.fm just now..
Who knew Sky Larkin and the Shins had the same stylist? The real question is who would make the better Superman. Clearly not the Shins guy, he's fallen asleep on the job, whereas Sky Larkin dude has a ladybird for a sidekick. So much better than Robin. Playlist: Well you can see what I've been listening to above actually.
January 08 Free gig = making January slightly less depressingI believe the terms are 'woop' and 'yay'
Playlist: Rocket From The Crypt January 07 Tips for 2009 OverloadIf I read one more article mentioning that these acts are going to be 'big news in 2009' I am personally going to sabotage their careers.* Little Boots Girl from Dead Disco goes solo and gets chummy with Hot Chip. And? I'll give you something you can get stuck on repeat. La Roux We need another cute girl doing poppy electro? Really?! Anything on Jagjaguwar Soz but the kids have been all over this stuff for a few years now, so citing it really does not make you look hip, it's just obvious. Ipso Facto. I'm looking at you Alan McGee. Who needs a Horrors vol 2 when they've been around for a couple of years anyway?
* by this I mean not buying any of their music, which will probably happen anyway. Well, not with Jagjaguwar but you get my point. Playlist: Nick Cave, Duchess Says
January 03 Quiet times on the music front...While there's a lot of gigs and new releases coming up over the next few months, generally things feel kinda quiet with regards to new music.Cleck This is probably because I haven't spent much time at all listening to new stuff, the last few days have been soundtracked by a lot of Cash, Indian Summer and Drive Like Jehu. I'll be back down with the new stuff soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to these gigs in January: Tubelord/Colour/Calories - Old Blue Last, 7th Jan Tubelord are Holy Roar faves, appearing on last year's tape compilation, and Calories appeared on this year's. Rolo Tomassi/Pens/Male Bonding - The Lexington, 10th Jan And I'm dj-ing at this, bonus! Cleckhuddersfax - Catch, 16th Jan Playing the Slash club, I've never seen Cleckhuddersfax so looking forward to seeing them for free on a Friday night. Throats/Brontide/Holy State - Old Blue Last, 31st Jan We keep vowing to never put shows on but this is free, with some ace djs, and it's a Saturday night, so I'm hoping it'll be problem-free. Playlist: Johnny Cash, Comets On Fire
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