Glitchy Feet

Toronto-based electro-punk vandals Crystal Castles have just been confirmed for their second Belfast date of 2008. The boy/girl duo of Ethan Fawn and Alice Glass have had a remarkable 2008, releasing their self-titled debut to the acclaim of public and pundits alike and playing some of their most remarkable shows to date. They had their Glastonbury performance curtailed for breaching health and safety guidelines, Glass scaled scaffolding in the tent in which they were performing.

Continue »

Details Of New TV On The Radio Album

TV On The Radio have announced the tracklisting for their forthcoming new album, Dear Science. The album which is scheduled for release on September 22 on 4AD is the follow-up to the New Yorker’s 2006 classic Return To Cookie Mountain.

The full tracklisting is as follows…

1. Halfway Home
2. Crying
3. Dancing Choose
4. Stork & Owl
5. Golden Age
6. Family Tree
7. Red Dress
8. Love Dog
9. Shout Me Out
10. DLZ
11. Lover’s Day

Port O’Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing

It will most likely not come as a surprise to learn that Port O’Brien are a band who have found their inspiration from the environment in which they live. Although you would be wrong to assume they live in Port O’Brien – no, in fact they are currently resident in and around Kodiak Island, Alaska, a bleak, beautiful and at times isolating place to live. Remarkably for a signed band, inspiration is also drawn from the labour intensive day jobs they have (although, the show schedule on their MySpace page would suggest they’re taking a fairly long summer break); and let it be known, inspiration is something this band has in bucket loads.

Their sound could be loosely characterised as alt. folk, however it would likely appeal to fans of bands as diverse as the Shout Out Louds, Pavement and Akron/Family. Their music is as much a reaction against the solitude and stark beauty they live in, as it is a reflection of it. ‘I Woke Up Today’ is a joyous and emphatic opener, which unfolds in a delightfully unpredictable way, featuring a Polyphonic Spree-style choir of voices. ‘Pigeonhole’ – about as rock as this band gets – is a cathartic, ramshackle alt-folk wig out featuring crazed, wailing guitars that at times echoes Sonic Youth, or Western Freeway-era Grandaddy. ‘Will You Be There?’ is a more stripped down, intimate affair that showcases the fragile vulnerability of Van Pierszalowski’s lead vocal. Jaunty banjos, varied drum textures, choirs, and damn good melodies all contribute to making this album thoroughly entertaining.

All We Could Do Was Sing explores life’s questions and challenges, its beauties and its ironies. Its lyrical introspection is balanced against its deep, melodic life-blood and energetic and ambitious arrangements. It’s easy to imagine joining this band for a few jars and a sing-along in some isolated Alaskan bar. This is folk music for an indie rock audience, and as such is a celebration of the highs and lows, the beauty and the fragility of life, and the fact that music is good for the soul. Aaron Kennedy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

For Fans Of: Pavement, Shout Out Louds, Akron/Family.
Download: ‘I Woke Up Today’, ‘Pigeonhole’.

Frank Turner

An evening with Frank Turner in the sumptuous surroundings of the Waterfront Penthouse bar seems slightly incongruous, for he’s a singer who has earned his street-cred stripes on the festival circuit with punk band A Million Dead. Still, he’s no winsome bedroom troubadour. His songs are at one turn full of invective spewed at the way today’s youth are apathetic and lacklustre (’Thatcher Fucked the Kids’) or romantic musings like ‘Substitute’, which had my favourite line of the night “If music was the food of love / Then I’d be a fat romantic slob”.

A word of warning to any female fans out there who fancy their chances with Frank – don’t get on the wrong side of him romantically or he’ll prove that the pen is mightier than the sword and stab you with his biro, metaphorically of course. At one stage I thought my hair was going to curl with the energy he was pouring into a song about an ex-girlfriend, and I don’t have that many follicles to be curled.
The Penthouse bar proved to be a welcome addition to Belfast’s music venues. Intimate, cosy and plush, the views over Belfast’s Laganside plaza and beyond, provided an engaging backdrop to Frank’s songs. The casual listener didn’t have to be transfixed on the man himself for the entire set as you would have to be at some venues, and I’m sure Frank wouldn’t have minded, as there was an appreciative group of fans happily ensconced cross-legged in front of him on the carpet listening intently.

A hearty ripple of approval went through the crowd when audience favourite ‘Photosynthesis’ kicked into gear. A great tune for a glorious, sunny festival day for everyone in their wellies to jump up and down to with their hands in the air, bellowing at the top of their lungs. Fair dues too for eschewing the usual encore sham and instead choosing to play on for as long as he was “allowed to”. He went into a tender cover of Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’, his second of the evening, after an earlier run-through of the Lemonheads’ ‘Outdoor Type’. An interesting choice, which showed the diversity of Frank’s influences, and certainly gave me a surprise. On the evening, I couldn’t help feeling that a Boss cover jarred with slightly, but life is full of surprises, and the entire show was one of those very pleasant ones. Miss him at your loss when he returns to these shores in the autumn. Jeremy Shields

AU Meets: The Mae Shi

Over the course of four records and countless full throttle live performances, Los Angeles band The Mae Shi have showcased a penchant for joyously unhinged punktronica. Fast, furious and willfully experimental, their 2004 debut album Terrorbird, was a lunatic laugh of a record, its sound and subject matter taking us to realms far beyond the conventional.

Continue »

AU Meets: The Mae Shi (Pt. 2)

The experimental nature of the band meant that you were often operating outside the boundaries of conventional pop and rock. As a consequence do you think that the music press sometimes found it difficult to understand what The Mae Shi were about and dismissed you to a certain extent?

“I think so. I’ve always felt like we were a band that was ‘about music’ as much as we were a band making music. But I don’t think many people seem to pick up on that and write about it, so maybe it’s just in my head. Haha. I can definitely see how we would be a hard band to write about though.”

This year, with HLLLYH, you seem to have made a decisive breakthrough, the album was feted by the likes of Pitchfork, you got positive reviews from SXSW and have been getting love from Rolling Stone, did that feel like a vindication of sorts?

“We got love from Rolling Stone? [The Rolling Stone blog judged them one of the hits of SXSW] I had no idea! Yeah, it’s nice and gratifying to get some love from people. I, for one, am not above being really stoked that we are getting good press. But it’s funny, I keep reading things like, “The Mae Shi FINALLY learned how to write proper songs”. Which really bums me out. Because it shows that a lot of the people who are championing the new stuff, still don’t understand the old stuff. We all feel like the old stuff is at least as good as this record. So, yeah, I’m glad people like the new stuff, but I don’t feel vindicated really.”

The band has been going since 2002; it seems like a process of constant evolution, refining what you’re about through the live shows and releases. What would you say are the most marked differences between the initial incarnation of the Mae Shi and the band you are today?

“Well, 75% of the members are different! That’s a marked change! I think the songs come through more in a live setting these days. The songs used to be interpreted a little looser live than these days. There was more room for improvisation, where as now it’s more about playing the shit out of the songs. Both are rad, just different slightly.”

Your online biog mentions you reaching for ‘pop gold’ and taking the ‘show a little more seriously’. Would you say that your perspective on the band has changed in recent times, that you now see The Mae Shi in terms of a possible career?

“Well, the touring band has made a much more serious and committed effort to really do proper tours. I think at some point in the last year and a half or something we decided that maybe we could make a career out of this if we gave it a go. We’re in the process of testing that thesis now.”

It’s been reported on Wikipedia that you’re already working on new material. If this is true, what can you tell us about it and would you be likely to write another concept album in the style of HLLLYH?

“We are working on new material and have been, very slowly, for a while. The next record could definitely end up being a concept record, but it’s too early to tell. We don’t really know what records are going to sound like or be about until we are well into them. We let the music tell us what to do.”

You’re renowned for your frenetic and inspired live shows, what can the Belfast audience expect from the Mae Shi?

“Positive love vibes. Raw Power. Smiles. Hugs. Wireless guitar. And lots and lots of sweat!”

Interview by Francis Jones

Moving On Music presents The Mae Shi with support from We Are Knives at the Limelight, Belfast, August 1.
Album HLLLYH is out now on Moshi Moshi
The band tour the UK through August including an appearance at Field Day.

Website
MySpace
Facebook

Metallica Album Details Revealed

Metal immortals Metallica have announced the running order and tracklisting for their hugely anticipated album, Death Magnetic. Frontman James Hetfield has also elaborated on the title, “It started out as kind of a tribute to people that have fallen in our business, like Layne Staley and a lot of the people that have died, basically — rock and roll martyrs of sorts. And then it kind of grew from there. Thinking about death… just like a magnet, some people are drawn towards it, (and) other people are afraid of it and push away.”

Continue »

Lambchop On Menu For Dublin

Nashville’s finest exponents of magnificently brooding alt-country are headed for Ireland. Lambchop will be playing Dublin’s Tripod at the beginning of November in support of their forthcoming new long player. Oh (Ohio) the band’s tenth album is released on City Slang on 6th October. The album was recorded in Lambchop’s hometown of Nashville and produced by Mark Nevers and Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater Kinney, Freedy Johnson).

Continue »

Primal Scream - Beautiful Future

Clamorous bells ring in the changes on Primal Scream’s ninth album, signalling that changes are afoot, and nothing is as it seems. Coming after the disappointing retro-rock and roll-isms of Riot City Blues, Beautiful Future has everything to prove, and gets stuck in straight away. The Stones swagger has been replaced by motorik rhythms and mechanical guitar, but the warmth of the previous record remains, with the aforementioned bells, marimbas, and even strings at one point. Primal Scream completely re-invigorated, energy pulsing through the artificial heart of this album. Even Bobby Gillespie, never the strongest vocalist or songwriter, seems on top form, his presence imbuing almost every song with personality, and forcing it to connect with the listener.

Primal Scream have never made any secret of their history as rock ‘n’ roll historians, and this album is no different, drawing from Krautrock pioneers Neu!, as well as the sexy sounds of Philadelphia soul music. ‘Uptown’ is a lesson in dynamics, with strings wrapping themselves round the supple bass of Mani Mountfield, whilst Gillespie gets hot and bothered, almost pouring himself over the song.

However, as with almost every Primal Scream album, it’s not all good. There’s a slightly saggy mid-section, with ‘Suicide Bomb’ plodding along, achieving little, and towards the end, it begins to hark back to some of their more ‘Rolling Stones-lite’ material, all country rock grooves and twangy lead guitar. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing, but uncomfortably jarring when placed in context with the modernism of the rest of the record.

However, when Primal Scream stop looking over their shoulder to the past, they have an unerring ability to warp the laws of time and space. If they say this is our beautiful future, you better believe them. Steven Rainey

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘BEAUTIFUL FUTURE’, ‘UPTOWN’.
FOR FANS OF: NEU!, MY BLOODY VALENTINE.

The Long Blondes - “Couples”

Rumours have it that The Long Blondes’ second is the latest in a long line of classic break-up albums. Such a conclusion seems obvious given the recent change in inter-band relationships, the tales of love gone awry contained within and that title, “Couples”. However, whilst it would be wrong to dismiss these biographical readings completely, it would be equally erroneous to consider this record a latter-day Blood On The Tracks. This is no memoir: instead of specifics, it evokes a mood of romantic dishevelment, the sort of album onto which the listener can project their own yearnings.

Musically, they veer from pop with panache to the wilfully weird. The first half of the album is distinguished by more obviously tuneful material. Songs such as ‘The Couples’ and ‘I Liked The Boys’ play puppet-master with our heartstrings, whilst ‘Guilt’ flaunts a melodic form chiselled from god’s own quarry. Halfway through and we are taken ‘Round The Hairpin’ into a domain of beats bizarre and thoughts fantastical. Bearing the inimitable brand of producer Erol Alkan, these later tracks, most notably ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Too Clever By Half’, mark a definite point of departure from the band’s debut.

If they can continue to couple songwriting brilliance with a desire to progress, then our love affair with the Long Blondes will long endure. Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Century’, ‘Guilt’, ‘Nostalgia’.
FOR FANS OF: Pulp, Sparks, Soft Cell.

Breeders - Mountain Battles

You have to feel sorry for Kim Deal. Like a first former with a much smarter, sportier older brother, she is continually haunted by the ghosts of past glories. If Kurt Cobain hadn’t declared The Breeders’ debut Pod one of his two favourite rock albums of the Nineties, then maybe the weight of expectation would not have been so great. But then as Kurt’s other favourite album was the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, the seminal band in which Deal made her name, she is doubly cursed.

It’s been half a decade since the last Breeders album. Someone might have said that it’s not the years but the mileage, though each has taken its toll. Several of the tracks on Mountain Battles were written on the Pixies reunion tour, and it shows; they feel like demos, morsels rather than full meals. Occasionally, this minimalist approach works: the fruit-crate thump of ‘Bang On’ and the creepy folk of ‘Here No More’ are intriguing, but other songs are half-finished, verses ambling in search of a middle eight. Frustratingly, the album is peppered with great tracks: ‘Night Of Joy’ is ghostly surf rock that would be right at home on Bossanova, while ‘Walk It Off’ is the kind of slinky hipshake that Deal does so well. She still has one of the sexiest voices in rock, but against this inconstant backdrop it’s like honey without the nuts. Ross Thompson

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘We’re Going To Rise’, ‘Walk It Off’.
FOR FANS OF: That Dog, Belly.