back to the music!

The long drought is over.............I have completed my Masters and life can begin again. It has been too long without music action, but really it's just been a lack of gigs. There has still been a heap of new music filling my ears and making my days better. I just wish I had of had more time to write about it.

So.......what has been helping me through the sleepless nights and long days of designing and writing? Whilst there has been a multitude of different things (depending on my ever fluctuating moods) there were two constants over the last few months, both of which you should all already know and enjoy, they are The Ting Tings and Frightened Rabbit. Both of these groups have kind of surprised me and pretty much taken control over my auditory world. I will do a little longer piece on Frightened Rabbit and the amazing album 'The Midnight Organ Flight' in the coming days, but suffice to say it has almost been worn out already with repeated playing. I keep trying to listen to something else, but there is nothing else fitting my mood and feeling right now. In the rare moments when it does go off (or I am getting a bit angsty) the Ting Tings fill that small gap with some damn catchy pop to pep me back up. All in all it's not a bad combination.......

BUT......there are still many more new things to come...........I can't wait.

Stars sparkle @ East Brunswick Club 28/02/08

In a week full of sideline gigs following on from St Jerome’s Laneway festival, this was surely one of the those I was most looking forward to. Stars had had some issues at Laneway with terrible feedback and all around poor sound coming out of their performance in Caledonian Lane. It forced this aficionado to abandon the crush before even hearing one song and eventually prompted singer Amy Millan to walk off stage for the first time in 8 years of performing.

Thankfully there were no such issues at the East Brunswick on Thursday – Stars were in fabulous form, and eager to make up for the Laneway debacle. I can honestly say they did that and then some. For a band that could (should?) sell out much larger theatres, they seemed genuinely thankful and pleased to be here and the sellout crowd was definitely feeling the love.

Torquil Campbell’s frantic, dramatic vocals combined with the angelic sounds of Amy Millan to create a sound more urgent and, although perhaps not always perfect, I think more immediate and affecting than the recordings. The band’s two headed assault from two such very different performers is probably what makes them so desirable and interesting to both hear and watch. I’ve heard at times that Campbell’s dramatics threaten to overpower the musical experience occasionally, but in this instance I think it was always tempered by the sultry, subdued, almost feline-like presence of Millan which kept everything in perfect equilibrium. The woman is sexy with a capital ‘S’ and seems to be able to do that rare thing of making every person in the audience think she is singing only to them, and with a voice like hers that is a special feeling indeed.

Campbell enjoys a bit of banter with the crowd and as he told us, likes to introduce songs in fake accents. The part time thespian actually did manage a very passable Aussie one to say “This next song is about f*cking someone to death and we hope you enjoy it“ before ripping into ‘One More Night’, a song which typifies everything I find appealing about Stars. They are able to deliver such biting and dark lyrics through the guise of a sweet pop song. There always seems to be an underlying bitterness or discontent on even the most beautiful of tunes, a contrast which gives their work much more depth and interest. This is not just ‘twee pop” it’s smart, and melodic and damn entertaining.

When Campbell revealed his t-shirt with the hastily scribbled “I miss Grant McLennan” message across the front, we only loved him all the more. Although he surmised that some of the crowd were a little young to be Go Betweens fans, Campbell’s small tribute to “the greatest songwriter of all time” made sure that tomorrow all those that didn’t know already know them “had found their new favourite band.” A nice touch from a band that have written some wonderful songs themselves.

In a set that was heavy on numbers from latest album In our bedroom after the War, but featuring tracks from every album ( including a sublime version of ‘Going, Going, Gone’ from Nightsongs) this was a gig which showcased the diverse sounds and stories that Stars are capable of producing and the talents of every member of the band. From sweet, quiet pop to desperate screaming, every angle was completely wonderful and entertaining. Almost every song could be called a standout, from the heart wrenching disappointment of ‘Personal’ to the all out fun of ‘Take me to the Riot’ to the bittersweetness of ‘Midnight Coward’ they had us in their emotional grip for the entire gig.

The band came back to for one encore to give us a heartfelt rendition of ‘Calendar girl’ and a particularly spirited and intense version of ‘What I’m trying to say’ before finally ending on the soft, warm tones of ‘The Woods’. In the end Stars left us not only with the many roses that they thrown into the crowd, but with a feeling on contentment upon seeing them perform so well and with such genuine heart and pleasure. I only hope they do keep’ schlepping’ back again and again as they promised – if the crowd at the East Brunswick was anything to go by, they will always have a devoted and welcoming audience.

Check out this album on fasterlouder for some great pics

Interpol - C'mere

partly because I'll be seeing the lovely boys in less than a week, partly just because of the song itself.
quite apt.

Enjoy

Grand Archives

Given my love of all things 'Band of Horses' and of Sub-Pop releases in general, the recent news that ex-BoH member Matt Brooke's band Grand Archives were releasing a new album on that very label had me quite excited.

And what do you know - it's lovely! Check our their myspace to hear the tunes.

Also, if you pre-order the new release online from Sub-Pop before the 19th of February (like me) you get a free, limited edition 7" on white-vinyl featuring alternate versions of “Sleepdriving” and “George Kaminski”. Bonus.

listen : Grand Archives - Louis Riel.mp3

Okkervil River Interview

Okkervil River's The Stage Names was truly one of my standout albums of 2007, so when the chance came up to interview frontman Will Sheff I threw away my hatred of speaking on the telephone and attempted to find some level of composure. I needed have worried too much as Will is one of the easiest people I've ever had to speak to and is such a damn nice guy that I managed to conduct something of an conversation, despite my intense nervousness. For first interviews this was a dream.

Below follows some of what we discussed in amongst the distractions of new puppies and tangential musings about the wierdness of the internet. (slightly edited version at www.fasterlouder.com.au)



I caught up with Sheff in Austin where the band were doing some recording ahead of their third visit to Australia.
This tour will see them as one of the highlights of the Laneway festival as well as doing their own shows around the country. So are Will and the band looking forward to the long trip Down Under again and playing such a unique festival?

“Well I’ve never been to that festival so I don’t really know what to expect. Meredith (in 2005) was wonderful, it was one of my favourite shows we’ve ever played, but I don’t know much about Laneway so, I’m just waiting to see what it’s like.“We’ve played festivals in the streets before. One of the things I really like about playing in the middle of the city is people looking out their windows watching; I really enjoy that.”

Is there anyone in particular they are looking forward to seeing amongst the lineups?

“I love Broken Social Scene; we’ve played festivals with them before and they’re really great. Also the Brunettes are friends of ours. We’re looking forward to hanging out with them and checking out some other local acts.”

You’ve had such critical success along the way, and The Stage Names has been described as your most confident work to date, but how worried do you get about the reaction to your albums, coming from a music critic background as you do?

“I just hold at the centre of my desire what I think and what I want. I’ve gotta believe that if I’m very hard on myself about delivering what I want in the way that I think is good then hopefully other people will appreciate that and it’s going to hopefully strike a chord in them too.”

But you do still make time to make music just for yourself right?

“Well, it’s important to remember that music is about having fun. Sometimes that gets lost in the public arena because you’re just making everything for other people. You gotta think about ways that you can keep it around, and for me one of the ways is to ‘enforce’ music just for me sometimes and you know that’s ok.”

Would it be too much to hope for another Australian tour EP or another appendix?

“There will be a Stage Names appendix, we’re working on it now and it’s going really well. I can’t stop having that problem – I just write more than I need and then I have these songs and I come to really love them, but I can’t really put them out anywhere else because they have such a specificity genetically to the Stage Names stuff or to the Black Sheep Boy stuff, so yeah we are going to do that again….I don’t know if I’ll always do that. Maybe you can only do that so many times but right now we’re really enjoying it.

Along with Stage Names, Golden Opportunities, a series of mainly covers and one original song was released by Okkervil River in 2007 – it came out free on their website to relatively little fuss, was this an attempt to circumvent what Sheff has previously described as the betrayal of music download sites?

“Yeah that was part of why. I liked the idea that if a record came out then it was going to be us that put it out and if somebody’s gonna give our music away for free then it would be us giving it away as opposed to someone cynically, facelessly ripping it on their work computer”

But is this kind of action – dealing directly with the consumer and making music more accessible – the natural and positive progression of the music industry?

“Well I think that it’s a positive progression in a sense, one of the things that was really special about the Radiohead experiment is that it’s a larger scale version of something we already knew about the internet which is that it has the power to bring fans and the band closer together in a really special and interesting way.”

This is not to suggest however that these experiments are the answer though.

“People will play technological pundit and say ‘music will be free’ but why is that? I mean it costs money to make music, it’s not free to make, so obviously giving everything away before other people steal it and give it away anyway is not a permanent solution for people who are trying to put food in their mouths; but I think that there’s a whiff of the future in that. I do think that the important thing is to be optimistic and look forward. It’s important to believe in people and in Art and believe that it’s always going to be precious to people”

Believe in the art of Okkervil River by checking them out at any of the shows below:

23rd Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Adelaide Buy Tickets
24th Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Melbourne Buy Tickets
26th Feb 2008 - Corner, Melbourne www.cornerhotel.com Buy Tickets
27th Feb 2008 - Manning Bar, Sydney www.manningbar.com Buy Tickets
29th Feb 2008 - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth www.perthfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
1st Mar 2008 - Laneway Festival, Brisbane www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
2nd Mar2008 - Laneway Festival, Sydney www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets

Radiohead - House Of Cards

Just because it's that kind of day

New sounds

Very good things to get your hands on :
(take a listen by clicking on the artist name and going straight to their myspace)

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

YAY! Soon to appear on our shores again for what will surely be yet another sell out tour.

Quality release as always from John D.

Magnetic Fields - Distortion
'welcome back, welcome back, welcome back'


Cat Power - Jukebox
More gorgeous covers

That's not all - a small package arrived on my desk with 2 wonderful cds I ordered from Canada's Maple Music some time ago, but am so happy to be surprised by them today:

Amos the Transparent - Everything I've forgotten to Forget
Fabulous folk/indie tunes. This is something you won't want to forget.


Cuff the Duke - Sidelines of the city
I first saw these guys supporting Hayden back in Vancouver. I still think they are great.
Alt country/rock fun.


and last but not least a lovely little EP from Ireland

Drunken Boat - Cut the Engines, Raise the Sails.
Lie back, listen and enjoy