Issue #42

Issue 41

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Could the feisty Scots be on the brink of something ‘monumental’?

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Problems? What problems! Troy Van Leeuwen insists everything is ‘amazing’ on the good ship QOTSA.

BIFFY CLYRO
The highs and super duper highs of 2007’s biggest breakthrough band.

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION
Ex-Test Icicle Dev Hynes shakes off the cobwebs and prepares for his debut solo record release.

ROISIN MURPHY
It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye…Moloko frontlady counts her blessings.

CHROMEO
“You gotta turn off the adult filter to get the really nasty stuff”

REVIEWS
FEATURING: Fighting With Wire, British Sea Power, Sufjan Stevens, Clone Quartet, Hot Hot Heat, Kate Nash, Neutral Milk Hotel, Tracer AMC & AU’s top 20 albums of 2007

SUBBACULTCHA
INCLUDING:
Sly Stallone, Franz Ferdinand, Oppenheimer, Transformers, Radiohead, Enter Shikari, Heroes, Mario Kart, Hack/Slash, Hadouken and more.
BACK OF THE NET: Will Jesus wink at you?

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Futureheads Bounce Back

Damn Shames

Marilyn Manson Licks A Man

My Bloody Valentine

Board Games & Puzzles

Songs From Adverts

Eels Slip Out A Retrospective

The Maple State

Asiwyfa

Star Wars Fever, ’77-Style

Hooray For Humans – Yay For Tunes!

Johnny Foreigner

WORD UPS: Noel Edmonds, stupid hair, Flower pot men, beef hats, the secret of eternal life, butts, wrinkly old geezers, chocolate monkeys, bog boaking, fear, fairy men, Amy Winehouse ‘avin it well large and the usual raft of brilliant beards and hardcore pun action.

“Take the pieces and…you know what to do.”

BEST OF 2007: Justice

Justice

Laconic, philosophical and dragging on a cigarette between heavily-accented musings, Gaspard Augé is the epitome of French cool, and moreso because he’s one half of Justice, the introduction-shunning groovesters of the year. He fills us in on scary fans, making waves and that ‘D.A.N.C.E’ song…

Continue »

Now That’s What We Call Music: Volume 1

One hundred releases old; it’s a momentous occasion for distinguished indie Fantastic Plastic. This cut-price, sixteen-track celebratory compilation provides an enchanting entrée to the work of the label. Gathered here are rarely heard, early gems from the likes of The Futureheads and Guillemots, along with a selection of the tracks that helped establish the label’s reputation, get a load of the feisty pop-punk of Angelica’s ‘Why Did You Let My Kitten Die?’ Obviously Fantastic Plastic caters to no genre except excellence. From the Beatings’ Kevin Shields’ produced ‘Bad Feeling’, a track to pound the listener’s cerebral cortex into pâté, to the beguiling pop-rock of Astrid’s ‘Distance’, it is about passion rather than product. And the closing track, ‘Local Man Ruins Everything’ by Scottish Poet Kevin MacNeill is a true, heart-hunting revelation. Francis Jones

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FOR FANS OF: Quality music
DOWNLOAD: ‘Local Man Ruins Everything’ by Kevin MacNeill, ‘Bad Feeling’ by The Beatings.

Fighting With Wire – Man Vs Monster

Fighting With Wire’s timing could scarcely be better. Having spent the last few years building up a reputation as one of the country’s most compelling live acts, they’ve waited until now to unleash their debut full-length via Jetplane Landing’s Smalltown America. With the clamour for a FWW opus to sate their rabid fanbase reaching fever pitch, ‘Man Vs Monster’ is a huge-sounding, balls-to-the-wall guitar record at a time when we’ve never needed one more. The mainstream is drowning in slick, over-produced, feyly pretentious emo, few of the new wave revivalists have been able to replicate first-album success and with the rush of snouts plunging into the reformation trough, even pop is threatening a comeback.

Against this artistically suffocating backdrop, it’s no wonder that ‘Man Vs Monster’ is such a breath of fresh air. This collection strips rock back to its bare bones, turns the amps up to 11 and reclaims the mighty six-string as more than a mere backing instrument. ‘Cut The Transmission’ illustrates this from the off, opening the album in a storm of squalling guitars, thumping bass and pummelling drums, with Cahir O’Doherty’s strangled yelp adding to the sense of urgency. This furious start then gives way to a peach of a refrain, as O’Doherty drawls, “Keep her out of my head,” over a chorus of harmonious “woah-ohs”. The sound is perfect; each individual instrument is given room to breathe, allowing telling little variations in the playing to come to light in subsequent listens.

And what playing it is. Having taken Extreme’s advice and got the funk out on Jetplane’s excellent ‘Backlash Cop’, Cahir is in full rock mode, his flamethrower leads and chunky riffing equally reminiscent of J. Robbins’ work in Burning Airlines and Bob Mould’s on the first two Sugar releases. The rhythm section is just as vital: Craig’s drumming is intricate yet powerful, Jamie’s bass melodic and forceful, the two syncing perfectly to propel the music forward while providing a valuable vocal foil for Cahir’s committed delivery. The songs themselves are pretty damn fine; ‘All For Nothing’ and ‘Everyone Needs A Nemesis’ recall the effervescent pop rock of prime Jimmy Eat World or the Foo Fighters, live favourite ‘Strength In Numbers’ is given a beefy reworking whereas ‘Long Distance’ and ‘The Quiet’ showcase the band’s darker, heavier side. ‘Sugar’, meanwhile, is an absolute cracker, mixing musically inventive, lyrically paranoid verses with an achingly driven chorus, it’s the best song that Braid never wrote.

‘Man Vs Monster’ is, in short, a stunning record. Hell, any band that has the balls to leave the cracking ‘Machine Parts’ single warming the bench knows they’re on to a good thing, and so it proves. In a year which has positively churned out hungry Irish talent, Fighting With Wire are unquestionably sitting at the top table, and they’ve just delivered a late contender for album of the year. Lee Gorman

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DOWNLOAD: ‘Strength In Numbers’, ‘Sugar’, ‘Everyone Needs A Nemesis’
FOR FANS OF: Jimmy Eat World, Burning Airlines, Foo Fighters.

Clone Quartet – Well-Oiled Machine

It’s a rare privilege to closely follow the progression of a band throughout the course of their development. So often you only have the final, polished product thrust upon you, which gives no indication of the journey the band have made to reach their destination. Tracking the evolution of Clone Quartet from their early beginnings through to the delivery of a fully formed and realised long player isn’t necessary to appreciate what is a truly excellent album, but it does give a rewarding insight into how far they have come. Through a steady development in style and finesse they have bolted their own unique, quirky sonic character onto an art-rock, disco-punk framework to produce something exhilaratingly fresh and original.

Clone Quartet meld the worlds of electronica and indie music in a way that is much smarter and more astute than the glaringly obvious tactics employed by many of the new bands who claim to joining these two styles. Where Klaxons need to throw in an old skool rave horn to force their reference down your throat, CQ take a much more subtle and refined tact. They absorb their influences and rearrange the DNA to produce altered, improved forms. The results range from the mutated disco of ‘Need Your Love’ to the almost grunge-tinged ‘Played To Death’, plus a broad smattering of all kinds of brilliance in-between.

Songs that have appeared on past outings all feel enhanced on this record, with production nuances giving them a new lift, and the short, sharp sugar rush of ‘Carousel’ still sounding as vibrant and urgent as when it was first dropped. With a healthy appetite for experimentation Clone Quartet explore different spaces on the new material on the album, and there is just the right amount of distance travelled without anything coming across as disparate or out of place. There are plenty of clever touches to keep your interest piqued, and it stays on the right side of smart-arse throughout.

Clocking in at a remarkably specific 40 minutes ‘Well-Oiled Machine’ feels like it has had all the fat trimmed off it time and again, with not a jot of filler material left in sight. The prospect of outstaying its welcome is never entertained. In the end you feel fed but not fattened, and there is always room for one more listen. A perfect debut. Jonny Tiernan

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DOWNLOAD: ‘Carousel’, ‘Hold On’, ‘Well-Oiled Machine’
FOR FANS OF: The Robocop Kraus, Klaxons, Foals.

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

When ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ was re-released in 2005, it sparked a wave of interest in this most elusive of bands. The record is generally regarded as a stone-cold classic, and has proved to be massively influential, in it’s own low key way, with it’s Spector-esque lo-fi wall of sound arrangements finding favour with indie-rockers the world over.

‘On Avery Island’ - Neutral Milk Hotel’s debut album - finally gets the re-release treatment too, although it will be difficult to see it having the same impact its more acclaimed younger brother had. There is nothing fundamentally different between the two records, both hinging on the warped voice and songs of Jeff Mangum, and a warm, fuzzy folk-psychedelic sound, but somehow it just doesn’t have the scope of ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’. Perhaps it doesn’t have that record’s emotional centre, an entirely moving story that draws upon the life of Anne Frank, or maybe it’s just not as good. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a treasure trove of delights to be found here. Opener, ‘Song Against Sex’ jangles, then pounds its way into the mind of the listener, painting seedy pictures. ‘Where You’ll Find Me Now’ is sweet and beguiling, Magnum’s voice sounding pure and honest while guitars swirl and distort around him, bringing a smile to the face and a tear to the eye of all but the most hardened of hearts.

Aside from the songs, this record’s re-issue is timely in that it stands up. In a day and age when it would appear that everybody on the face of the earth is in a band, the mid-90s were a veritable dark ages, with records frequently difficult to find, and information on obscure acts such as Neutral Milk Hotel only found by trawling through the inky press, rather than at the touch of a button. In this environment, bands such as NHM thrived, making up the rule-book as they went along, constructing their own mythologies.

Neutral Milk Hotel emerged out of the Elephant 6 Recording Company, a collection of like-minded individuals operating out of Athens, Georgia who spawning three notable groups: the enticingly named Olivia Tremor Control, Apples In Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel. Despite sharing band members, each of the bands had a distinct identity. Apples In Stereo being the pop classicists of the collective, Olivia Tremor Control represented the more experimental side of things, mixing jangly psychedelic rock with absurdist cut-up concepts. Neutral Milk Hotel represent the true songwriting wing of Elephant 6, with Jeff Magnum the in house literary-influenced genius, in contrast to AIS man Robert Schneider’s sonic visionary role. Magnum’s songs carry compelling narratives, touching sentiments, and passionate proclamations. Magnum also emerges as the genuine enigma of the group, seemingly intent on following his own path, and ignoring the constraints of a ‘career’ in place of some kind of higher artistic vision. This has led him to disappear from the face of music, with no new output since the original release of ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’.

It is precisely that enigma that makes Neutral Milk Hotel so compelling. This is a band that clearly did what they did out of pure love, and their legacy stands as a towering artistic statement when placed beside their peers. Sure this record is rough around the edges, and frequently impenetrable. But it has a mystery and majesty that is lacking from a lot of music released since. In its own humble punk rock way, ‘On Avery Island’ stands as a textbook example of a time when the music meant something and was made by people who did it out of love. As such, the time is right to fall in love with this record all over again. Steven Rainey

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DOWNLOAD: ‘Song Against Sex’, ‘Everything Is’
FOR FANS OF: Sebadoh, Pavement, Guided By Voices.

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

When British Sea Power first exploded out of Brighton in 2001, they were a breath of fresh air: a resolutely British sounding band clearly not in thrall to the garage rock in vogue with their contemporaries. BSP captured that exploratory spark that had propelled British music into the future, and seemed intent upon giving us something new.

Today, it’s a different story. While the garage rock of yore seemed exciting and vital, it quickly became apparent it was a creative dead-end. And whilst the neo-post-punk stylings of BSP didn’t really do too much commercially upon their first release, a whole generation of bands picked up the baton they passed on, to the point where the average British music fan now can’t move for jagged, Gang Of Four-esque guitar bursts, glacial washes of sound, funk beats, and bass as a lead instrument.

Not that this is any consolation. In the years since debut album, ‘The Decline Of…”, BSP have consistently failed to reach the heights they seemed destined for. Singles which should have demolished radio playlists slipped by unnoticed, and incendiary gigs that should have translated into album sales, ended up nothing more than fond memories. Second album, ‘Open Season’ garnered more critical praise and made it into the broadsheets, but the band still couldn’t get arrested. Worse still, while they had always been too esoteric to truly copy, the sound they pioneered was fast on the way to ubiquity.

Now after a two year lay off, British Sea Power dare to pose the question, ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ On the evidence of their new album, one might be inclined to fire the question right back at them, for there is little here that possesses the bite and attack of rock music.

In fact, an awful lot of this seems oddly familiar: the sweeping, orchestrated, spiky but melodic openings that bring the listener right back to where they were when they first heard ‘Remember Me’, the wistful open spaces that sound like faint echoes of ‘Oh, Larsen B’…they’re all here in abundance. Only more familiar sounding, and slightly flat. In fact, parts of this album sound like they were recorded in an empty aircraft hangar. Yan still mumbles and throws in oblique turns of phrase but they just don’t seem as exciting or interesting as lines like, “Let me be your implement”.

Indeed, there are times on the album where it almost sounds slightly ham-fisted, as if they’ve been intimidated by the current crop of one-time imitators. This is not a step in the right direction. In truth, it’s barely even a step. Rather, British Sea Power have dropped anchor, and are currently drifting in the tide. Steven Rainey

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DOWNLOAD: ‘No Lucifer’, ‘Atom’
FOR FANS OF: Bloc Party, The Cure, The Chameleons.

Thrice – The Alchemy Index, Vols 1 & 2: Fire & Water

If Thrice’s influential previous album ‘Vheissu’ pushed the boundaries of hardcore, then ‘Fire’ and ‘Water’, the first half of an ambitious four-EP examination of the classical elements (‘Earth’ and ‘Air’ will follow in early 2008), blows them to smithereens. ‘Fire’ is appropriately explosive, containing the angriest material of their career to date. Stunning opener ‘Firebreather’ combines mountainous guitars with complex drumming and eerie atmospherics, ‘Burn The Fleet’ echoes the epic melodies of the last Funeral For A Friend album while ‘The Messenger’ is pure ultra-violence, switching from brutal programmed beats to snarling metal riffs and larynx-shredding vocals. As an exploration of the different aspects of modern heavy music, ‘Fire’ is breathtaking, and yet the subtle electronica of ‘Water’ proves to be even better. ‘Digital Sea’ sets the tone, with layers of melodic ambience washing over a haunting, understated vocal and subdued percussion. Dustin Kensrue’s voice slowly drowns in static, giving way to the lovely aquatic burbling of ‘Open Water’ and the slow-building storm of ‘Lost Continent’. Again, the sheer range and depth of the songs is incredible; Thrice have raised the bar, and once more shown themselves to be one of the most important bands active in hardcore today. Lee Gorman

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DOWNLOAD: ‘Firebreather’, ‘Digital Sea’, ‘Open Water’.
FOR FANS OF: Thursday, Coheed And Cambria, The Postal Service.

Issue #42

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

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BEST OF 2007: Justice

Now That’s What We Call Music: Volume 1

Fighting With Wire – Man Vs Monster

Clone Quartet – Well-Oiled Machine

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

Thrice – The Alchemy Index, Vols 1 & 2: Fire & Water

Thrice – The Alchemy Index, Vols 1 & 2: Fire & Water

City & Colour Follow-Up Announced

City & Colour Follow-Up Announced

Issue #48 - O RLY?