Regular visitors will be aware that I’m quite a fan of a band called I Like Trains (formerly spelt iLiKETRAiNS). Quite a while ago now, they recorded the follow up to their debut album Elegies To Lessons Learnt. News went very quiet on the I Like Trains front at that point, which is perhaps no surprise given that they were no longer attached to a label, thus needed to work out how they were going to release the new album. Fast forward to earlier this month and the band announced that they were to raise money for the creation of a label ILR, but also the mixing and release of their second album He Who Saw The Deep and an accompanying tour. They are raising the money through the Pledge Music website and a portion of the proceeds from the fundraising for the project go to Friends of the Earth. The band weren’t simply asking for donations though, they were offering exclusive gifts, goodies and rewards to those willing to hand over their money. If the project target wasn’t met within a given timeframe, no money would be taken from anyone. They met their target in not much over 24 hours. Personally I pledged to purchase a signed personalised album and a hand bound and hand illustrated hardback lyrics book; both personalised to my other half. There were a number of offers which were, and are, difficult to turn down – not least a vinyl box set featuring all their releases to date and a b-sides and rarities disc. If I find myself with £100 to spare before pledges are halted, I know what I’m spendind it on…
It strikes me that this might be a very sensible way forward for smaller bands in the modern music industry. There are a number of bands with solid fanbases who might either struggle to be signed in the traditional label model, or not enjoy working within that framework. This kind of website allows bands to allow fans to purchase something which they’ll really appreciate and in the process fund the release of new material.
Since I started composing this post Grammatics not only announced that they were splitting up, but that they were funding the release of their final EP via Pledge Music due in part to the success of the I Like Trains project. For my part I snagged their new EP and also a rarities CD. In addition to the release of the EP they’re going to tour for a final time, I’ll aim to catch them when they’re in Scotland. Pledge Music has enabled this release, something which might not have happened otherwise. It seems like a lot of bands are repaing the benefits of this business model already.
It seems they’ve decided to make 65daysofstatic’s new album We Were Exploding Anyway available for streaming on their myspace for the week before its release. It sounds pretty good even through the muddy filter of internet streaming. Of particular note are Come To Me featuring Robert Smith of The Cure on vocals and Tiger Girl (which I mentioned in my previous post.
So if you fancy it, give the album a spin. I’d expect a review of this album once I’ve had the CD for a week or so.
Here are a few songs which have been bouncing around my head recently.
Dinosaur Pile-Up – Love Is A Boat, And We’re Sinking
I’ve actually loved this song for a good little while now. It’s just about as simple as you could hope for, a couple of finger picked guitars bouncing off each other, some bass and some cracking well defined drums. Oddly I don’t particularly like any other Dinosaur Pile-Up songs and this was only a b-side. Enjoy it here all the same.
Personally I’d probably have preferred had Matt Bigland’s old band Mother Vulpine stayed together instead. Their brilliantly named song Keep Your Wits Sharp (Her Words Are Quick) was something of a favourite of mine a few years back.
Rolo Tomassi – Party Wounds
Rolo Tomassi’s debut album was a fantastically noisy thing. They have this real ear for creating monstrous sounding songs, with moments of beautiful fragility. This is more of the same. It’s much more amusing when you imagine the growling coming out of the diminutive female singer’s mouth. That blindsided a few people when I saw them live. You can grab the track here.
65daysofstatic – Crash Tactics
This has been a real grower. When I first heard it I was slightly disoriented by it. Is this 65daysofstatic dumbing down? Are they targeting a more mainstream audience? Probably not, it’s a completely different sound, but it’s probably no more accessible. Once I got my head around it, it really whetted my appetite for the new album. Grab it here.
65daysofstatic – Tiger Girl
Tiger Girl really got me going. The new album sounds like it could be a cracker. This is a plus ten minute dance epic. It builds layer upon layer, in wave upon wave. By the time the drums are being piled on and the guitar kicks in the song turns into something really beautiful. It’s clearly the euphoric outro to the album. Here’s hoping everything else is as good. Check it out on The Hype Machine, then grab it here.
I Like Trains – When We Were Kings
Another band with an album due out this year, I Like Trains are coming on strong. With guitars that sound like they’ll crystalise your ear drums, Dave’s trademark deep vocals and ever dynamic drums, it’s a great taster of the new direction. The track features some delicate vocal harmonies and a stunning middle eight, before segueing into the brilliant refrain “We rise. We fall. We pitch. We Yaw. No sleep, no sleep, no sleep. Repeat”, the song certainly knows how to capture the attention of the listener. Check it out here.
With the release of 65daysofstatic’s new album We Were Exploding Anyway looming, I thought it would be a good time to take a retrospective look at their last album The Destruction of Small Ideas. Personally I’ve always really rated it as an album. Not only does it contain some stunning songs, but it’s one of the best produced albums of the past few years. Interestingly the critical reception at the time in some quarters criticised that very aspect. The album was produced in a different way to the band’s previous efforts and most modern albums. The production of most modern albums focuses on having pretty much everything really loud. This album was recorded bearing this in mind and as such has a much larger dynamic range of volumes. An interview with the band covers the issue really quite well.
The Loudness War is a result of artists wanting to make their music stand out by artificially increasing the volume of their recordings. This makes the music stand out on the radio and sound better on the more standard – rubbish quality – laptop speakers most people will listen to music on these days. It’s achieved by increasing the average volume of the recording, which itself is often achieved by compressing the dynamic range. The image below shows the effect of successive increases in the volume on the waveform of Something by The Beatles. You’ll note that by 2000 the waveform has been pushed to the point where it is nearly hitting the limits of what is possible in the recording format. Probably the most famous example of where this has been pushed too far is the Metallica album Death Magnetic. This image shows two versions of the song My Apocalypse. The top is that from the CD release, the lower is from the Guitar Hero version. Note that the CD waveform has actually been pushed to the point where it is clipping on the edges of what can be stored in the digital format. This kind of waveform results in audible artifacts, or distortion. Laughably the version from Guitar Hero (which was mastered separately) has been shown much more care and as such is actually the superior recording. It brings me much joy to imagine Lars Ulrich in a recording studio repeatedly saying “No, we need more volume. Louder…louder!”.
Back on point, the beautiful thing about the production of The Destruction of Small Ideas is that they took all of this into account. This means that the album has a fantastic sound. The quiet moments are really delicate and the difference between these moments and the loud moments is astounding. It offered what should have been the perfect rebuttal to the continual pushing of the Loudness War. Instead people were left disoriented by something which was produced in a slightly different way. If we take a quick look at the waveform for one of the songs from the album we can clearly see that a greater range of volume levels are being utilised.
Yes it still has loud sections, but these are contrasted with just about everything in between. This is in sharp contrast to the Metallica track in which the dynamic range of had been throttled out of existence, similarly the multiple increases in volume of releases of Something by The Beatles would have a similar effect. It’s something which I would really like to see less of, but I’m not entirely sure the music industry is willing to go that way. Hopefully artists will continually make a deliberate retreat from the front lines of the Loudness War. It’s a battle that has already resulted in at least one major casualty, the production quality of which was criticised far beyond the realms of the hardcore music fan.
Minnaars came on to the stage well after midnight, but were clearly looking to have a great time. They bounded onto the stage with youthful enthusiasm and immediately started up with some crowd interaction. This didn’t go down so well however. As it turns out drunk Aberdonian old codgers don’t appreciate English people. This made for an interesting atmosphere for the first half of the gig, though the band had a humorous comeback for anything and everything. This is much to their credit, rarely have I seen a crowd chuckle away so often between songs.
With that note out of the way, on with the important stuff; the music. Minnaars immediately broke out into the excellent Busy Hands. Given that this is what I would consider a genuine dancefloor filler, that’s some statement of intent. Between the pulsating synth, delay-laden, staccato, dueling guitars and dynamic drums and baseline it would be difficult not to dance. The breakdown in the middle with the refrain “I’ve been falling into bits, been like this since the blitz” has always been something I’ve found hypnotically good. This was even more true live. The song has been reworked since it was last put on record and now has an extra bit at the end where a recording of the vocal line has been cut up and placed over new synth lines, before breaking out into an outro. It was a fantastic re-imagining of an already great song. Below is the original version of Busy Hands.
From there the band went on to play a mix of old songs and songs which have been written for their debut LP. This was their first gig since recording some of that album, but you wouldn’t know it from the performance. The band are nearly all extremely dynamic and charismatic performers. Special mention here has to go to the frontman and the two guitarists who were almost always doing something else, different, new, or unexpected. The new material all sounded very interesting, exploring a similar shouty, danceable guitar based area in a number of different ways.
The gig finished with an interesting new song (possibly just an intro for Are Lovers) which had 3 members of the band doing almost nothing but singing at the same time, all over the top of the drums, bass and synth. This led into the fantastic Are Lovers, before the band left having pleased at least a significant subsection of the crowd and it looked like they had fun along the way.
Hopefully their album will come out later this year. In the meantime I’ll make do with the compilation of their work to date “Of Our Delirious Former Loving Hours”.
I seem to be fashionable late with this again. Yes, it’s that time where I round up my favourite releases of the past year and write a small amount about each one. Months late. I’m restricting it to a top ten this year, though I may go back and go over a few disappointments from the year in a follow up post.
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
Had I been quicker off the mark with this, this album wouldn’t have made this list. As it is its relatively lowly position in the list is perhaps due to limited exposure to its charms. This has some excellent synth pop, some of which is true dance floor filler stuff. Heads Will Roll in particular is the sort of pounding, pulsating song which I would genuinely like to hear in clubs. The album has this strong synth pop edge, but a gentle heart of fragile songs like the brilliant Skeleton. So synth pop + fragility + clean guitar = a highly enjoyable album.
9. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
With his second solo album, Jarvis Cocker brought his trademark witty lyrics to bear with an album which was much more satisfying than The Jarvis Cocker Record. There was something which I just didn’t enjoy all that much about The Jarvis Cocker Record in retrospect. Further Complications is the album I was looking for. The heart of this album is all about good fun, with songs like Caucasian Blues featuring the whitest instrument known to man (the recorder) playing the blues. Jarvis’ lyrics usually delight on this album, be it lines like “I never said I was deep, though I am profoundly shallow” from I never said I was deep, or the corny “I met her in the museum of Palentology, and I make no bones about it” he finds a way to delight in most songs. What lets the album down however is that its best song is a million times better live. You’re In My Eyes (Disco Song) this version including an amusing improvisation with the lyrics at the start.
8. Sky Larkin – The Golden Spike
Sky Larkin are a band I find hard to explain in the context of most of what I listen to. They are easily the closest thing to pure pop that’s on this list. The album is all about simple hooks, a clever vocal harmony here, a well placed breakdown there, it is pop and unashamedly so. There’s something undeniably likable and honest about the band, they’ve made an album that’s just good honest fun and you can’t really ask for much more than that. Katie Harkin’s vocals really make the album in a way, it’s unlikely the album would feel even remotely the same with another singer.
See also this fantastic video for the song Molten (not the album version if I’m correct though).
7. Grammatics – Grammatics
Grammatics are a band whose album I was really looking forward to in the early parts of last year. In all honesty they only appear so low on the list because of the sheer quality of the releases higher up. They are everything I like from a band, male falsetto singing, female backing vocals, super clean – super delayed – guitar, an interesting extra instrument (double bass), a good sense for the stereoscopic and some fantastic songs. One or two songs prevented the album from being a real great. Check out D.I.L.E.M.M.A. but my favourite song (Relentless Fours) wasn’t a single, so here’s a live version.
6. Graham Coxon – The Spinning Top
The Spinning Top is a return to form and a return to the more acoustic stylings of Coxon’s earlier solo albums. Coxon’s last effort Love Travels At Illegal Speeds seemed to indicate that as an artist he was determined to plough the successful commercial furrow first explored in Happiness in Magazines. Instead Coxon has brought things back to a simpler, yet more satisfying folk style. More importantly the album is whimisical in places and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The two combine to ensure that the album feels enjoyable and also achieves true beuaty in some places. Caspian Sea even manages a riff that sounds like it’s straight out of a 1970s children’s television show.
5. 65daysofstatic – Escape From New York
I won’t dwell on what was essentially a live album. They’re very good. It is very good. The only downside was the relative lack of new material, that has to be expected on a live album though. A band who can only be described as emotional and visceral.
4. The Appleseed Cast – Sagramartha
A band line-up that constantly changes probably helps the sense of progression, or at least difference, from album to album. This may well be their best to date though. As a band they’ve developed to a point where they create truly affecting soundscapes. It ticks all the boxes for something I like, clean guitar, delay, slow build ups, interesting percussion, all mixed together with a hint of piano. South Facing Col is probably the best track on the album. It builds to a crescendo then morphs into something altogether more beautiful, before crumbling in fragility near the end. Excellent stuff.
3. Johnny Foreigner – Grace and the Bigger Picture
Grace and the Bigger Picture is definitely Waited Up ‘Til it was Light’s smarter, wiser older brother. The album was constructed in a much more careful way than its predecessor. There’s a lot of call and response between different tracks, not least the excellent duo Choose Yr Side and Shut Up! and Illchoosemysideandshutup, Alright. These also help form the perfect live trifecta with the addition of Salt Pepa and Spindarella from their debut album. The album pulsates with energy moving at a quick pace before finally ending in relative chaos by the end of album closer The Coast Was Always Clear. The album isn’t without its quieter moments, though most of them come in the early part of the aforemention Illchoosemysideandshutup, Alright and Every Cloakroom Ever.
2. Dananananaykroyd – Hey Everyone!
A brilliantly constructed album. Every song is an absolute riot. The album doesn’t quite convey the energy of their live shows, but that it comes close is testament to its quality. Standout tracks are probably the hand-clapping, “woo”-ing pop number that is Black Wax and the simply brilliant Some Dresses. Not forgetting The Greater Than Symbol and the Hash. Some Dresses is probably just about my favourite song that ever deconstructs itself and re-emerges in a completely different state.
1. Jeniferever – Spring Tides
I once rather cruelly said that while Jeniferever are a great band, I could never see them being anybodies favourite band. That was after seeing them play songs from their debut album Choose A Bright Morning live at King Tuts. Their second album Spring Tides made me eat my words. It is a marvellous piece of work and hardly a week has gone by since its release that I’ve not listened to it at least once. Spring Tides takes the post rock of the first album and infuses it with more strings and more Bowie. Somehow that’s a combination which works fantastically well. They know how to build up a song and then release the tension with a rock out, followed by a calming soothing section which almost always leaves you wanting more. While Nangijala is definitely the centrepiece of the album, Green Meadow island is probably my favourite track.
Just a quick note for any ¡Forward, Russia! fans still lurking around these parts. The band have started putting up some recordings on their forum. I already had everything that’s up so far, but it served as a good reminder of how enjoyable a lot of these live recordings are. Hopefully there’ll be more to come over time.
¡Forward, Russia! are still undoubtedly my favourite band and it’s good to see that things aren’t completely quiet on that front. Though a number of the members of the band have been involved in various things which I’m going to be talking about soon, so that’s a positive.
It seems there’s barely ever any good news here. It is with a heavy heart that I note the end of another of my favourite bands.Youthmovies announced their split shortly before the end of last year. It’s not unexpected as things have been quiet on that front for quite some time, and it is well known that the band members no longer live near enough to make being an active band a viable option. Still it is galling as they were spectacularly good the last time I saw them live. Rarely have I seen a band play so tightly, accurately and with such confidence.
For a seven year career (in their various guises) their two mini albums, two EPs and one album perhaps seems like a poor return. However the quality more than makes up for the relative paucity of releases. There is to be one more tour, for which I will definitely make my way to at least one date. Rumour has it that they’ll again be supported by their excellent sometime collaborator Adam Gnade once more as well. Here’s to another great band, which will be missed by many.
The next few weeks sees two of my most anticapted albums of the year released. They’re both debuts from bands which really gathered momentum throughout 2008.
Grammatics
Grammatics are a band who concentrate on creating intelligent pop songs. They’ve occasionally been accused of being too clever for their own good, though I have to disagree based on their output to date. The really interesting dynamic is that a cellist features prominently, something not often seen in modern popular music. The cello is integrated really well with the rest of the music, it makes you wonder why it isn’t more common. Vocals are likely to be a point of contention for some, falsetto is a bit of a love/hate thing so it’s easy to see why. The really interesting point for me is that one of my favourite songs of last year, New Franchise, hasn’t even made it onto the album. Usually this is a good sign.
Dananananakroyd come from almost the opposite direction. It’s still clever music but, instead of seeming careful and considered, it’s a big, fun punch in the face. The lead single for their debut album Hey Everyone is a bit more relaxed, but features nearly all of their trademark musical touches. Based on their output so far, you can expect intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-outro, but it’s executed in such a way as to make it irresistable. They’re probably going to be more famous as a live band, but I have high hopes for their studio recordings too.
It’s unfortunate that these albums are being released during a hectic period in my year, it will make digesting them a slightly harder process. Expect reviews sometime near the end of May at this rate…
