abstract boy

2008-12-30T12:36:00.002+01:00

Return of Black Box Recorder

Black Box Recorder make a long awaited and slightly unexpected return to the stage in February 2009, with a two night (so far!) stay at the delightful Luminaire in Kilburn. There's no mention of a new album, so I think this is just a special treat for anyone who is still listening to their aloof, icy, misanthropic and very funny music. The first night is sold out already, so get your tickets for night two quickly. You've got to dress smart for the gig, too.

Buy tickets here!

2008-12-29T20:57:00.002+01:00

Albums of the year 2008

2008 was a supreme year for music. After a couple of uninspiring years, London is again home to exciting young blood in the shape of its own budding anti-folk scene. The movement is mirrored over in Scandinavia with a similar rejection of meat’n’two veg, rockin’ with yo’ cock out, bland and tired indie-rock. I welcome the soulful return of acoustic guitars, violins, accordions, sensitive poets and their charming poetry. Following are my top 10 albums released in 2008:

1. Laura Marling – Alas, I Cannot Swim

Laura Marling’s debut album showcases a talent and outlook more mature than her tender age. Each song is a delicately crafted wonder, and the album flows perfectly from song to song with very simple, traditional and organic instrumentation and minimal production. This album has so much soul.

2. Shout Out Louds – Our Ill Wills

This is perfect bittersweet pop music, with lovely melodies, powerful choruses and folky charm. Impossible, clocking in at an unprecedented 7 minutes, is a soaring epic masterpiece. What is in the Swedish water? I want some of it.

3. Late of the Pier – Fantasy Black Channel

However great you thought Bathroom Gurgle was, nothing could have prepared you for this bombastic, force of an album. These ain’t just 12 great spiky, punky dance songs; this is a fully integrated journey that hits you like a 12 tonne truck, aided undoubtedly by Erol Alkan’s knob-twiddling whizzery.

4. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke

Dramatic, sexy, dark, hypnotic is this excellent of debuts from New Zealand’s Ladyhawke. This album guises murky emotions and bittersweet reflections amid epic (almost stadium) rock/pop tunes, all of which could be mega hits if they were released to radio.

5. Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit – A Larum

Johnny Flynn’s debut is a handsome, soulful jaunt, with plenty of foot-stomping and hip-slapping opportunities. The lyrics unravel poetically with the rich, organic folk playing and bittersweet chord changes. Characters are cast, scenes are set, stories are told; you can’t help but fall in love with the old world charm that A Larum exudes.

6. The Faint – Fasciinatiion

A fine fifth album from Omaha, Nebraska’s finest sons, The Faint have still got it when it comes to making slinky, subversive electro. The mood is still critical political, and recent world events and popular trends offer plenty of mileage for these cynics. The music is a successful balance of punchy impact, punk and pop sensibilities and dancefloor readiness.

7. Noah and the Whale – Peaceful The World Lays Me Down

Noah and the Whale are purveyors of pure pop music and this joyous album is a celebration of life and love, the highs, the lows and the fleetingness and impossibility of it all. This sensitive, earnest and wistful debut will charm your pants off.

8. Sons and Daughters – This Gift

This stomping, sweeping and pacey third album from Sons and Daughters is full of strutting, cutting and pouting guitar- and basslines. The band wear their inspiration on their sleeves, with aural reference to sixties girl groups, rockabilly and Morrissey. The combination of dark posturing and timeless harmonies makes this an intriguing and mesmerising album.

9. The Long Blondes – Couples

Their second and final album saw The Long Blondes (RIP) put a brave spin on their kitchen-sink-drama business, with this even more dramatic, radical and retro posturing. The subjects may have occasionally been too avant-garde and ironic for the mainstream listener, but for pop pickers on their wavelength, this is an icy and exotic treat.

10. Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini

Flitting between charmingly delicate and organically funky, this full-bodied and earthy offering casts Ms Torrini as both the candlelit chanteuse and jive-dancing pixie. The album is free-spirited, full of freely pouring emotion, and showcases a definite leaning towards pop stardom.

Also highly commended: Lykke Li, Bon Iver, Wolf Parade, The Wave Pictures, Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio...

Hotly anticipated albums for 2009: Mumford and Sons, Jay Jay Pistolet, Peggy Sue and the Pirates, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, No Doubt, Peter Bjorn and John, and many more.

Happy New Year when it comes!

2008-08-31T18:37:00.002+02:00

Get Seduced

I suppose it's possible to call The Faint cult legends. Forming in 1997, they've just released five albums, have a rabid fanbase, play blistering and unique live shows and have made no impact on the mainstream. They are one of my favourite bands and have been for longer than almost any other band, excluding No Doubt, of course. I first saw them playing live with Radio 4 at the Barfly in Glasgow in 2002. It was my first over 18 gig and I was absolutely terrified of getting turned away and having to go back to Edinburgh, unaccomplished.

Six years on The Faint are back with their fifth album Fasciinatiion. The Faint (or not so) quietly pioneered modern electro punk or indietronica or nu wave or no wave or electroclash or nu rave or indie rave or whatever you want to call it. Their 1999 album Blank Wave Arcade meshed the synthetic sounds of new wave with the energy of punk and the beats of dance music, and since then they've made some of the most dark and exhilerating music that's passed through my ears. Fasciinatiion sees them building on their blueprints, pushing their sound forward with even more advanced and experimental production, all the while showcasing pop songs of the highest vintage.

They played at Cargo in London on Friday night and it was WILD. Lately everything has been a bit folky on the gig front and generally very calm and civilised. The Faint were an injection of life, sex, danger. With strobe lighting pointing upwards, video projections, rrrrrrrraw energy and, oh yeah, amazing songs, they tore apart the sold out venue. Lead singer Todd Fink (he married Orenda Fink and took her surname - aw!) was all over the stage, wearing a white lab coat and goggles, while the rest of the band hammered on synths, spat out penetrating basslines and popped their bodies to the incendiary beats. By the end of the gig I was wet from the whole room's sweat. I'll be sure to see them when they're back in November. Meanwhile, check their tour dates and book yourself a date with the night when they hit your town.

2008-08-25T23:25:00.003+02:00

Not too late at the pier

I cannot get enough of Late of the Pier's debut album, Fantasy Black Channel. It is causing me to body-pop involuntarily every time I have it on. The sound is epic, immense, intense. TRASH hero (and fellow Holloway resident!) Erol Alkan produced the album and I think it is his genius touch which has made it the truckload of might that it is. Each belting glam-tinged anthem flows effortlessly into the next, leaving the listener gasping for breath by the time it closes with Bathroom Gurgle, which requires a whole new set of lungs. Phew...

I recommend that you buy this album NOW. You can hear lots of songs over at the LOTP MySpace page.

2008-08-20T20:26:00.002+02:00

Mercury nominated

I've written so many times now about Laura Marling that I don't think there's much left to say, other than I've seen her a couple more times (at St James Picadilly - above, and Field Day festival - below) and she's so still so understatedly, jaw-droppingly amazing. I can only encourage you to buy her album, Alas, I Cannot Swim.

In July I was asked by the Evening Standard to comment on the Mercury Music Prize nominations, and I told Londoners that Laura Marling was the best. I think it was published about three weeks ago - I never saw it in the paper, but a friend's mum did. Here's what I said:

The Mercury Music Prize nominations never cease to stir up a whirlwind of excitement, discovery and controversy. ‘Elitist! Populist! Tokenist! Obvious!’ shout the public, but most music fans have bought a nominated CD on the credibility of the nomination alone. This year will be no different, with such a solid list of nominees.

If the Klaxons’ win last year was a nod to an electronic future, this year’s nominations represent the distinctly earthy, organic character of some of Britain’s best new music. The Last Shadow Puppets and Elbow’s grandiose offerings are laden with sweeping strings, Plant and Kraus’ duets are heavily inspired by American folk, while Rachel Unthank’s album is classic British folk at its haunting best. Even Radiohead have switched off their synths!

Laura Marling’s Alas, I Cannot Swim is my favourite of the bunch. It is earnest, brooding, understated and flows perfectly as an entire work. Laura has accidentally become the figurehead of a young London-based folk scene, and albums from such peers as Johnny Flynn and the Wave Pictures deserve to be on this esteemed list. I wouldn’t be surprised if her friends Noah and the Whale, Slow Club and Mumford and Sons populate next year’s nominees.

2008-08-18T20:21:00.005+02:00

Adriatic waves to Wave Pictures

It's been too long again without an update. I am resigned to updating in flurries, and hope that's ok for you. I've been listening to lots of new music recently and going to lots of gigs, as well as settling in at my new job. I travelled around Montenegro and Croatia for a couple of weeks earlier in the summer and loved the Balkan and Gypsy Folk music. I will do some more research and discovery and share some gems with you in not too long.

One of the best bands to fall under my radar in the last few months is The Wave Pictures. They are three boys who make lo-fi music with poetic, intelligent lyrics. Singer and guitarist Dave Tattershall is an incredibly profilic songwriter, so profilfic, in fact, that the Wave Pictures just released a six-song EP a mere 4 months after they released a full length album on Moshi Moshi.

The music follows simple structures, with basic instrumentation; the production is minimal and bass, drums and guitar have an equal prominence live and on record. The sound is sometimes urgent, sometimes melancholic, sometimes playful. David Tattersall's expressive and powerful voice, with his soft Northern accent and his witty and sometimes strange lyrics take full prominence, give or take the occasional frantic guitar solo.

I first caught them live supporting Laura Marling at St James Picadilly, a vast church in the West End. The band had never before played in such grand surroundings and David sung most of the set unamped to make the most of the natural acoustics. Punters in the rear pews could hear the vocals clearly. Their stage manner was totally unassuming and they seemed a tad fazed by the size and granduer of the hall, but the crowd were won over by their original lyrics and raw, honest sound.

I fully recommend that you skip over to their MySpace to listen to some of their most bestest songs.

2008-06-03T20:33:00.002+02:00

You Crawled Out Of The Sea

A year ago I was in New York, living in a mouse-infested room in Greenpoint, walking wide-eyed through almost every neighbourhood in the big apple, eating delicious food from all over the world, going to great gigs, plodding through galleries, museums, shops. I saw The Long Blondes at the Luna Lounge in Brooklyn and supporting them was Nicole Atkins and the Sea. I was bowled over by her incredible, powerful voice and the sweeping orchestration of her material. I was so enamoured that I forgot to take a single picture and so the experience went undocumented.

Luckily, hints were picked up on and her album Neptune City found its way to me as a Christmas present and then I found out she and her band would be coming to the Soho Revue bar at the end of April. The small venue was only at a quarter of its capacity and the majority of folks were crowded around by the the bar. This meant much of Ms Atkins' grandiose sound, energetic stage show and warm charisma were wasted on the immediate open space in front of the stage. She soldiered on and gave a great performance more suited to a big theatre than these intimate settings. By the time the band played the rousing Brooklyn's On Fire, less self-conscious people made their way to the floor for some fist raising.

I left happy, but frustrated and embarassed by my fellow Londoners. I've noticed increasingly that punters have a lack of respect for artists and have been to several gigs recently where people seem to be happier to stand by the bar and chat (loudly!) than give the band they've paid (or been guestlisted) to see. Perhaps going to gigs has become so de rigeur for people that it's just like to a bar and the live musical is incidental, if not annoying. Nicole said she would be back in June, and judging by the fact that she's already had a full page interview in a national paper and a slot at the uber-corporate O2 Wireless festival, so hopefully some major label muscle will help ensure she gets a more enthusiastic welcome next time.

2008-06-02T23:45:00.003+02:00

Bags of Gold

Jay Jay Pistolet isn't really called Jay Jay Pistolet: his real name is Justin. But songs that take you to some place else are his speciality, so he's allowed a stage name. Jay Jay (pronounces zjay zjay, like it's French or summink1!1!!!) sings low-key love songs to lucky girls, which evoke lost summers, unreqited romances and foreign places. There are elements of Bright Eyes in there, but without the need to worry for his sanity; there's more than just a glimmer of hope running through his material. Charlie Spink of Noah and the Whale has produced some proper demos for him, some of which are on his MySpace.

I saw him once with Slow Club (see below), and then again a week later with...Noah and the Whale (it's the same names all the time!) and I'm hooked and eagerly anticipating future recordings and gigs.

Ok, have a picture of him in pretend glasses at the NATW gig. Very bookish. Mmmm.

2008-05-26T23:23:00.003+02:00

Crikey.

Where did those two months go? Mine flew by - one minute I was doing job applications, then I was in Berlin, then I had tests, interviews and celebrations and lots of gigs. I was daunted by the sheer amount of photos to process (which is my process of gathering thoughts on the gig), but I've done that now, so it's quick re-cap time.

I saw Slow Club supporting Laura Marling back in February and fell instantly in love with their romantic, folky pop ditties. I made sure I saw them when they did played their residency at the Enterprise in Chalk Farm. The small room up the rickety stairs was an oasis of red velvet, soft lighting and happy punters. After support from the gorgeous Jay Jay Pistolet, Slow Club's Charles and Rebecca took to the stage to make lots of soft noise, making everyone grin ear-to-ear with their sharp lyrics and beautiful boy-girl melodies. It was beautiful. They finished with a truly unplugged rendition of their anthemic 'When I Go'. Hop over to their Myspace to listen to four songs. They might even be playing near you soon...

2008-03-25T20:43:00.003+01:00

Keeping out of Arm's Way

I completely forgot to mention how AMAZING Islands were when they played in London a month ago. They were AMAZING. Do you remember Islands? Islands are made up of ex-Unicorns, who were the first of the eccentric genius Montreal-based bands to get some attention about three years ago. The Unicorns combusted while touring their debut album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?. Islands rose like a phoenix from the Unicorns' ashes, with their album Return to the Sea. It was a more coherent album, with heartbreaking stringed moments, quirky lyrics, banjos and epic masterpieces. After getting a great studio tan in 2007, Islands emerged earlier this year to do a short, low-key UK tour to roadtest their new material.

Even without much press, their show at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen sold out quickly and a decidedly 'I read Pitchfork' crowd were out en masse to witness this most glorious of returns. Solemly dressed entirely in black as they took to the board, it was quite clear that the band meant business. They played almost entirely new songs, and the crowd were attentive and, for the most part, pleasently surprised. Their new material is darker and harsher than their debut, with sneering alt-country influences. Some of the songs had an air of Murderballands-era Nick Cave with their brooding, almost cinematic sound. The black outfits and singer Nick T's white painted face completed the package; Islands now conjure up thoughts of some dark, perverse circus.

Their new album, Arm's Way, is due out in May and will probably leave some fans who were fond of Return to the Sea's quirkier, dreamier aspects a little bit disappointed. That is, until they learn to love the new direction. To be fair, there dark undertones in the debut so nobody should be too surprised. Nevertheless, it was old favourites like Swans (Life After Death, which had the crowd swaying and cheering most vocally. Once the world has heard the album, all will be clear. There will be no denying Islands this year - just you wait...

p.s. I'm an idiot and seem to have deleted my pictures before saving them to my laptop - they were really good, too!

2008-03-21T13:48:00.002+01:00

Johnny Flynn, no Jing Jang Jong

You might have noticed that things have got a bit folked up over at abstractboy HQ. The possibility has always been there.. the junior Moldy Peaches obsession, all that fawning over Patrick Wolf, Bright Eyes, to the Nico, Vashti Bunyan and Emiliana Torrini records in my collection.

Right now Britain is positively haemorrhaging with folky talent. I loathe to use the word 'scene', but there is one, in that most of the emerging acts and artists are friends, taking each other on tour, stepping in when band members are sick, releasing split 7"S, etc. The chap who I'm writing about today, Johnny Flynn, actually set up an anti-folk night in London

Bands I'm going to be going to see (and reporting back here, obvz) are Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons, Slow Club, Jay Jay Pistolet and I'm sure there'll be many more to come. And of course, Laura Marling is the figurehead.

Supporting Laura at her Union Chapel gig was Johnny Flynn and his band, The Sussex Wit. When Johnny and the band stepped on stage I was struck by his undeniable handsomeness; foppish blonde hair, rosy cheeks, sharp features and a good ol' checked shirt. However, the good looks were no distraction from his real asset: unassuming, folky, romantic songs with crafty, witty, poetically heartstopping lyrics that seemed to just slip off his tongue. Their composition was absolutely perfect with banjos, violins, guitars, slide guitars all tinkling away to create a sound that is full, warm and complementary. His sister, Lily, proudly plays keyboard and provides the essential female backing vocals.

As one of the youngest ever Royal Shakespeare Company actors, one might have expected a bit more chatter between songs; instead he fumbled around and muttered awkwardly. Clicheed, but probably true, Johnny Flynn and his band are all about the music. Switcing instruments frequently and playing with calm gusto, Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit are a great band to watch and to listen to. Their single, Leftovers is out now and there's an album coming out in May. I, for one, am very excited.

2008-03-12T14:22:00.002+01:00

Here Comes The Serious Bit

On Monday night The Dead Eyed Bitches played their fourth, and last ever, show. Sporting a picture of that magical night when Britney, Paris and Li-Lo were all drink-driving around LA in the same car, their MySpace announced they'd be splitting up and having 'very successful solo careers'. It was 1am before they took to the stage at Durrr, their unnamed singer was wearing a blonde wig and blew kisses out to the crowd. The backing band looked distantly familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. They played some excellent songs - they opened with one called Century and it was tremendous, sharp, deathly disco. Their other songs were very good, too. There was one about Erin O'Connor, one called Not Clever By Half, then another funky number - Guilt. Unfortunately the sound wasn't very good, so the singer's vocals weren't as clear as they should have been. Mixing vodka and beer meant I was pretty dead-eyed afterwards and rather worse for wear at work the next day!

Alas, I still made it down to New Cross to see The Long Blondes do their comeback show to launch their new album, "Couples". I was there early and sat on the stage, when the LBs' neither long nor blonde singer came up and sat next to me. 'Hi' she said, mentioning that she'd seen me dancing away last night (was she at The Dead Eyed Bitches fourth and last ever gig too?!?!!) and wanted to introduce herself! Very sweet. We chatted for five minutes, mostly about New York, I couldnt think of much else to say!

They were great though, so tight. They opened with their new single, Century; a slab of tremendous, sharp, deathly disco. The band were on fire, with KJ gyrating, pouting, waving, shaking her hips. They were very glad to have come back. They raced through the setlist, hardly gasping for breath. Two weeks of solid interviews had them craving to play live again and it was full throttle. I'd just about forgotten how much I like them as a live band - Dorian, Emma, Kate, Screech and Reenie are all fascinating to watch, each interpreting performing their music in the same way. Their new songs are incredible though. One of my favourites is I Liked The Boys, which is an unpolished, minor-driven, fast paced belter, with moments of wistful urgency that sound like PJ Harvey. Here Comes The Serious Bit was also strong, sounding like early Blondie and Elastica.

They snuck in only two old songs: Lust in the Movies, with it's incredibly filthy, fast-paced bass and scream-along name-droppin' chorus, finishing with Giddy Stratospheres, which is just as earth-shatteringly good as it was the first time I heard it. Their eyes really lit up playing the old songs, like landing back on home turf. Even before they'd released their album, the Long Blondes had at least five songs that would tear up any dancefloor. Based on the gig, the prospects are good for "Couples" to change the world, etc. You've been warned.

2008-03-09T12:28:00.001+01:00

Straight into my arms...

It's amazing how easy it is to slip into obsession. Since Laura Marling's beautiful songbox arrived at my door (and then another one for my flatmate), my flat has been filled with the dangerously dark and sweet sounds of Laura's voice. Luckily the other two flatmates like it, otherwise there'd be some serious issues. The whole thing is beautifully crafted; the album itself flows so perfectly, the order is just right; the songbox is a colourful, quality, oversize trinket of treasures, but this gig was something else.

Union Chapel is the ideal location to see someone with a sound as delicate as Laura Marling's. It is perfectly preserved, classic and not too ornate, grand but not overstated. the acoustics were sublime and the sound guys had it just right. Laura played the album, almost in order and skipping two tracks. With the album so perfectly strucutred, the setlist took the audience on a similarly perfect journey. Laura was noticably more confident than at previous gigs, but still shyed away from eye contact, focusing intently on delivering her songs. After saying that she and her band would incorporate their encore into their set, the crowd gave such a long applause that she came back out to do an impromptu cover of Kimya Dawson's Five Years, which was most excellent.

The songbox idea worked well in practice; only those who bought the song box got to go to a gig. Therefore everyone at the gigs knew and engaged with the album, appreciated the momentos and were respectfully quiet while she was playing. Of course, curious people wanting to check her out would miss the boat - you'd have to make that £20 committment from the outset, but it was well worth it in the end.

2008-03-07T14:41:00.003+01:00

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The Dead Eyed Bitches are playing Durrr on Monday. They Dead Eyed Bitches might just be a secret name for a very good band, who have been busy recording their AMAZING second album, which is so amazing that I worry society just isn't ready for it yet. I don't want to spell it out (maybe I just have?), but you wouldn't want to miss out on this one.

2008-03-06T14:07:00.002+01:00

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend played an utterly astounding show at ULU a couple of weeks ago. The Brooklyn boys brought their fresh and funky blend of Afro-beat-meets-new-wave-hipster-meets-Ivy-league-preppy insanely danceable top rate pop music to London and London loved it. Propesctive listeners might have been put off by the amount of hype they've received recently, appearing on almost every Top 10 for 2008 list, or the fact that their name makes you think they're going they dress as the Horrors at the weekend. You'd be wrong. These guys are definitely not some here today, gone tomorrow chancers. They even played a NEW song, which is quite daring if you consider they only released their debut album two weeks beforehand.

You'll have to listen to their music to get any proper understanding of how good it is. Words just can't do it justice. So I will describe other things. They came across as refreshingly intelligent, friendly, unpretentious chaps with lots to say. All too often (British)indie bands are too arrogant to give some good banter; they are too busy being serious or looking unwashed. Maybe New York (and Columbia University) produces much more cosmopolitan, confident (but unassuming) people than London (etc), I don't know. But it was nice to hear/see nice music by nice people. I especially liked the singer Ezra Koenig's brown leather deck shoes. Lots of folk in Billyburg were wearing them last summer and I really want a pair, but that's another story.

There was a fire alarm two thirds of the way into their set, just as things were building up to a roaring climax. The band very diligently left the stage and the crowd filtered out through ULU's fire escapes and we all had to wait in the cold for half an hour. Champions that they are, Vampire Weekend had the audience lapping them up within minutes of getting back on stage, regaining their momentum quickly and playing all their best songs. Not even a fire alarm could thwart this most triumphant of gigs. Superb!

2008-03-03T23:42:00.003+01:00

Only real injustice can get me seething. It's fair to say that I'm not quite seething about this, but this definitely deserves a rant.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by the Evening Standard letters editor, Josh Neicho, to write a piece on Amy Winehouse's Grammy win. It wasn't the first time I was asked to write for the letters page; in February 2006 I got a phonecall from the same guy asking me to write about the rise of the Arctic Monkeys and the internet. I duly responded and had an article published the next day - quite a thrill. He'd written other times, asked me to give my response and did not write back or publish my articles. I didn't hear back from him this time and he didn't publish my letter.

This re-affirmed my attitude towards doing this kind of thing. As a blogger I blog as and when I please. As an amatuer photographer, I take pictures at the gigs I want to go to, when I want to go to them and can upload my pictures when I choose. It stops being a hobby when people give you deadlines, false expectations and want you to do the work of a freelance journalist. So, no more wasting my time writing for bad, mainstream, profiteering newspapers.

This is what I wrote anyway:

It is a real shame that Natalie Cole, after all her experience of the music industry, does not understand the concept of music awards ceremonies. That is, to recognise the musical achievements of artists, not the private conduct of celebrities. It is almost as absurd as it is to assess A-levels on students’ behaviour, or to only award Olympic medals to heterosexual athletes.

Considering Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black is riding high in the charts all over the world 16 months after its release, that it received international critical acclaim and people of all ages are enthusing about Amy’s incredible abilities, it is not at all surprising that she swept the board at the Grammys!

Young women in the limelight, like Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, are judged on everything they do in their lives; we nod disapprovingly when they smoke (eugh!), when they have a night out (tsk tsk) and even when they have difficulty parking their car (sigh).

Even if you think music awards are only a chance for the music industry to pat each other on the back, you’d be mad to deny the artists who enrich our lives the right to be recognised for their art, not their private life, for just a few days a year.

Robbie de Santos, abstractboy.blogspot.com

2008-02-20T23:25:00.001+01:00

Rave Rave Rave

Sometimes I forget about time, I neglect the bigger picture, I take life one day at a time. I forget that I've been writing this blog for almost FOUR YEARS, that I've been in a relationship for longer than that and that it's now SEVEN YEARS since I fell in love with all those New York bands who changed my life and took my appreciation of music to new stratospheres. With the film Juno getting a whole 'nother generation of indie kids into the Moldy Peaches, I realised holy cow, this music shaped the lives of me and my friends for the summer of 2001. We discovered our own senses of irony and lo-fi and sincerity and pretension all in one year. And that's SEVEN years ago. Sheesh.

The Raveonettes are one of my favourite bands who emerged from that garage rock, throwback scene and have outlasted many of their contemporaries. Sure, they've built their band up and broken it back down to the core: Sune and Sharin. And last year they released their fourth album, Lust, Lust, Lust, with many reviewers declaring it their best album to date. A lack of airplay and buzz round its release would have you thinking that people had stopped caring about the New York/LA-based Danish duo, but their gig at 229 in London last week was a reassuringly rowdy return to the capital.

Playing songs from all of their albums, they had the slightly older crowd eating out of their hands. The venue was quite spacious and people were dancing and swaying freely. Without meaning to be patronising, it was nice to see a whole room of people of all ages unashamedly dancing away and just having a good time.

The Raveonettes just stand there looking super ice cool and playing pricelessly cool music. Songs from their latest album are especially of tha ilk; it sounds even more LA, even more girl-group inspired and is driven by lovely soft melodies over layers of feedback in a modern interpretation of wall-of-sound. Sharin, being impossibly beautiful and glamorous is subject to much male fawning and gazing and it's sad to note the large group of 40 year old males with their camera phones hoisted in the air taking pictures of her like she is a piece of meat.

Sharin and Sune seemed unphased by the attention and played on. On earlier tours their performance has been slightly more intense and dirty, and involved more interaction between Sharin and Sune. I suppose that seems less genuine if the sound of the new material is less intense and more poppy. With the album released last week in the USA, it looks like they'll be on the road for a while, so I hope they will end uo injecting some of their olf bad selves into their performances!

2008-02-16T16:57:00.003+01:00

You love Sons and Daughters

First thing's first, Sons and Daughters' new album, This Gift, is astounding. It's a breathtaking journey of the punchiest, darkest pop music you can imagine. Infused with S&Ds' characteristic Scottish folk influences and combined with some filthy guitar work, pounding drums and soaring choruses, it leaves you breathless and begging for more. If there is any justice in the world, Chains will be the song that makes Sons and Daughters the global superstars that they deserve to be.

Their gig last week at ULU was a real triumph. Usually London crowds are a little shy around Sons and Daughters. There's maybe something a little dark and confrontational about their performance that makes a crowd feel uneasy. It's especially noticable in the fluorescent light of an in-store that an audience can feel exposed and awkward in front of Sons and Daughters' collective menacing stare. For whatever reason, the gig at ULU melted that divide and had the whole front half of the (possible almost) sold out venue bopping along.

The S&Ds tore through a set of old, new and very old. Like their last two albums, which come at you like a speeding lorry of intensity and leave you battered and bruised, the gig was packed full of their meatiest, most powerful songs with hardly a moment's pause for a bit of Glaswegian banter.

It wouldn't be Sons and Daughters if it wasn't so, but it seemed that S&Ds have such a robust backcatalogue of established favourites that they might be slipping into playing a similar 'greatest hits' set night on night. It didn't quite feel like they were tearing through the set to get over with, but it's a real danger when you have a long tour ahead of you and you want to be winning people over every night to fall into a set routine. I have plenty of faith in S&D's artistic and performing integrity to quash any doubts that that might happen.

2008-02-11T20:57:00.000+01:00

Marling-mania

Last weekend I totally fell in love with Laura Marling. I was very excited about her gig at Soho Revue Bar, which sold out in a couple of days without any publicity. She took to the stage all low key and tuned up her guitar, which looked enormous against her slight frame. She greeted the crowd with a nervous, posh-ish estuary English 'hello' and could have been just any eighteen year old girl trying her luck on stage. As soon as she opened her mouth to sing, any doubts were instantly dispelled. Her warm, rich, fragile voice defied her appearance and demeanour; all impressions of a happy-go-lucky teenager were bulldozed by the sheer dark emotional wisdom and experience evoked through the material played in this short set.

Laura Marling's concentration when singing is so intense that she does not move nor make eye contact. She looks possessed as she sings, eyes trained on something in the middle-distance, foot tapping nervously. It's as though focusing all her energy on the emotion of each songs consumes her. She had an excellently dapper band with her, playing fiddle, ukelele, accordian, guitar and bass, bringing out the full Celtic skeletons of her songs. Clearly not expecting the crowd to be so enthusiastic, she hadn't prepared an encore and decided not to play old favourites like New Romantic or London Town. Instead she played a cover of a Kimya Dawson song, which endeared her to me even more.

I had the songs swimming round my head all weekend and I couldn't wait for her album to arrive in the post. On Sunday I went to see Noah and the Whale in Chiswick. It transpired that this would be one of Laura's last few times playing with the band, which is a shame. Noah and the Whale are excellent - the grandiose, eccentric instrumentation of Arcade Fire et al, Celtic influences and London urchiny vocals. Annoyingly, they are all about eighteen years old too. I didn't think the time when my favourite artists were younger than me would come so soon.

Laura stood out of the limelight and NATW came across very much as a unit, playing their soaring, energetic and frantic to the happy but slightly dozy Sunday night West London crowd. They finished on my favourite song, Rocks and Daggers, which I'd been jigging away to all day with my friend Afsi. I saw Noah and the Whale for the first time supporting Feist in July last year. They'd made me and all my friends want to pick up our various instruments and form a band and I got that exact same feeling seeing them again. They are currently touring the UK as part of the Young and Lost tour. You should definitely see them.

As if I hadn't had enough of that whole scene by Monday, I ventured over to Rough Trade West to see Laura Marling do a mini-gig to launch her amazing song box. The song box is her ingenious way of packaging her album, Alas I Cannot Swim in an oversize, colour ful box, with little mementos which relate to each song on the album. You also get a voucher to claim a ticket for her tour - so only people with this nice big song box can go! It's Laura's way of making people listen to CDs and thinking about the content, rather than just ripping the songs onto an mp3 player and listening to the music through bad headphones. Great idea.

The Rough Trade gig was more of the same very, very good stuff. Rough Trade shops give me the musical thrill of libraries. I like to think of them, steeped in history, smelling of old records, dust, and the staff as mines of knowledge doing their job for the love of it. I didn't hang around to get anything signed, I was still waiting for my song box to arrive in the post from Amazon and, besides, I never know what to say to musicians I admire anymore; too self-conscious.

The album is amazing. Absolutely the best thing I've heard for ages and ages. It unravels more with each listen. I want every song to be at least another 340984985 minutes long. Still a few song boxes left on amazon - get one while you can!

2008-01-31T18:37:00.000+01:00

Wolflike change

Patrick Wolf, where has your love gone?

I will never ever forget the day I fell in love with Patrick Wolf. I'm sure I've mentioned it before...I had missed my train up home to Edinburgh by five minutes and couldn't afford to get the next one. I sat in my room in halls of residence and listened to Lycanthropy on repeat and thought about adventure, my rapidly changing life and the propsect of the night Megabus back to an empty house in Edinburgh. I cried for the first time in ages, for myself, and for the sheer naked beauty of that album.

I'm not sure I could pinpoint the day I fell out of love with Patrick Wolf or, indeed, if I ever have. But I wasn't excited for his third album The Magic Position when it came out early last year. Nor could I be bothered getting tickets to see him play at any of his shows this year. When pictures of him arsing around with Peaches Geldof and the underage London party urchins started appearing in the trash press I felt disappointed that he'd seemingly lost some integrity. I later realised that you shouldn't wish obscurity and eternal leftfield undergroundness on anyone, especially someone with bags and bags of talent.

However, at his FINALE SHOW (of the Magic Position tour and he added a second date when this one sold out, so not so much of a finale!) I left feeling empty and unmoved. At previous shows I'd been struck by the intimacy, the drama, the sheer professionalism and how organic the whole thing was (not in the muesli mummy sense). But this context of The Patrick Wolf Show, costume changes, unadulterated egoism and hundreds of screaming 16 year old brats covered in neon and glitter...it's so alien from what I loved and hoped for from him.

The set was arrnaged with three sections; an acoustic first act, a flamboyant main section, and an out of this world encore. The first half was, admittedly, very good. Final Fantasy and Bishi joined him on-stage for duets and the older songs he played were great. The rest of the evening felt like one of those awful ITV 'An Audience With...', with Patrick performing his songs with all the sincerity of a drunken karaoke session. He seemed to lose concentration halfway through some songs and would forget his lyrics while his army of fangirls dutifully screamed the correct words.

Some people have commented that he is increasingly using ze DRUGZZZZ recently, something which he and his management have staunchly denied. However, anyone who had witnessed one of his magical performances around the time of Wind in the Wires could tell you that something is very different with Patrick this time around. I don't wish to comment on how people live their private life, but it saddens me that this performance, and numerous others of Patrick's in 2007, were not up to his previous standards.

Maybe it's healthier to think about it in terms of the bigger picture. The Magic Position is one album in a career of possibly dozens. Artists, especially soloists, go through phases and come out of them; maybe everything's a phase. And, without being patronising, Patrick is comparatively young; he has a lot of metamorphisising ahead of him. While this period leaves me cold, I know there will be great, great things to come from him.

2008-01-30T22:39:00.000+01:00

Ohmigod

The music press have been making patronising claims for years that each year is the 'year for women in music'. Seriously, I've read it about five times. But all sources would suggest that the industry think so too, with 'real' young ladies like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Kate Nash being some of 2007's biggest success stories. I suspect that record companies were hesitant before, thinking young female buyers (historically, the most lucrative portion of the market) were more interested in male fronted bands. Without even trying I can reel off a list of several young female singers tipped for the top....Adele, Duffy, Laura Marling... and there'd be plenty more if I had my thinking cap on. Even Amy Studt is on the comeback trail...

Naturally this means that artists from my favourite musical region (Scandinavia) are being pipped for success. One of these ladies is Ida Maria, hailing from the tiny village of Nesna in Norway, though she cut her teeth in the music hotbed of Bergen on the way.

I went to see Ida's first show of a year of many, many shows. Though she was onstage at 9pm, the whole room was full and buzzing about her arrival. She took to the stage and strapped on a bass guitar and exclaimed something along the lines of 'this is the kind of music I used to play before this pop shit!' and proceeded to play a dirty, sexy, bluesy bass driven tune with rich, soulful vocals. Audience = thoroughly enraptured. After finishing she kicked off her (modest) heels and the rest of her band clambered on stage. It was time for 'shit pop music'!

Except Ida's pop music is the opposite of shit pop music (which she obviously knows is the case), it's feisty, punky, raw and highly energised, melody-driven pop music of the finest variety. Ida and her band only played around six songs, but there was a whole show's worth of energy packed into the 30 minute set. Louie bounced along with her powerful, but slightly cigarette-hoarse vocals full of cartoonish emotion. New single Stella had everyone bopping along and mouthing the words back at Ida, while the penultimate tune Better When You're Naked was so frantic that Ida needed to pour a bottle of water over her head and shake her hair like a wet dog over the crowd.

At times, you'd be forgiven for thinking the performance was a bit over-played. Too much enthusiasm, too much quirk, too much energy...could it be insincere? I'm not sure sincerity matters so much when you have melodies as perfect as Ida does, when you can get a Tuesday night crowd in Camden Town bouncing away after playing just two songs and when you're clearly having lots of fun on stage. The closer, Oh My God, was packed with urgency, energy and angst. It starts off a bit like This is our Emergency by Pretty Girls Make Graves and builds up to a chorus which would have Courtney Love envious of croakalicious energy!

I hope that 2008 will be an exciting year for Ida Maria. She's got a crazy schedule already and I'm seeing her in two weeks with the Raveonettes. In the meantime, check out her MySpace and make up your own mind.

2008-01-28T18:46:00.000+01:00

Gift of the Gab

Sons and Daughters release their long awaited (by me, anyway!) third album today. It's called This Gift (very punworthy) and it's very good. It's bolder than their previous work; they have dared to finally embrace the classic pop that they referenced in the last two albums. But it is still dark, with urgent celtic twangs, pentatonic notes and banshee yells emerging above the twisted Americana and Garage Rock. And about 28% of the guitar sounds very Smiths inspired. In other words, this is everything at once while still being classic Sons and Daughters.

Their schedule is all booked up for the next few months. The chances are that they are coming to a town near you. I've been to see them an insane sixteen times now and I never get tired of seeing them. I read a quote the other day from Scott, who said they aim to make going to their gigs like entering into the Sons and Daughters world. I'd never thought about it that way before but I think it's precisely that mesmerising immersion in their music and image and energy which is so thrilling about the S&Ds show. They have so much integrity. They are officially the least lame band ever.

You can download live acoustic versions of Gilt Complex, Iodine and Chains from here:
thanks to Graham for these

(no substitute for the real thing though, mateys!)

2008-01-13T23:24:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year! I have been ironing out some website/server issues and now I'm all good to go for 2008, a 2008 which will see me returning to blogging glory. Yes. This one is about Jens Lekman.

I’d been waiting ages to see Jens Lekman. Ages and ages and ages. I should have seen him in May 2006 in Berlin, but was in Hamburg watching Belle and Sebastian on that evening. But luckily Gothenburg’s finest son pencilled in a handful of headline dates around his support tour for Josh Rouse (I know, who?) and one of those was at the beautiful Luminaire in Kilburn. It was well over two years since Jens Lekman last played in London and this gig had sold out in just two days. Anticipation filled the venue; the crowd were restless during the average support bands and groups of friends could be heard enthusing over what songs he might play.

Jens’ entrance to the stage was very understated. He simply came out from behind the curtain, head down, and began to tune his guitar and test his vocals out on the microphone. He was greeted with a few cheers, but the majority of the crowd stood still, transfixed, attentive. There was no clear transition between Roadie Jens and Singing Jens; the tuning became plucking, which became his first song. He didn’t seem nervous but he did not look once at the audience. As the last note of the song resonated the loudest imaginable screaming came from the crowd, as though they had made some pact to make the most possible noise. After a couple further reactions, bemusement and shyness wore off and Jens was visibly more relaxed and happy to be there.

The set comprised primarily of material from this year’s Night Falls Over Kortedala, but with plenty of songs from the previous two LPs. The gig was so memorable as a result of Jens’ ingenious delivery of the songs. In A Postcard to Nina Jens introduced the song by telling the beginning of the story, which then slowly merged into the first verse. Subsequent verses and choruses were broken up with spoken interludes giving further detail to the story. On Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill Jens had the whole room making the ‘bombabombabbomb’ sounds and whistling with gusto, recreating the spontaneous party atmosphere of the recorded version.

Performing as a two-piece with his friend Tammy (who mainly did percussion), Jens was unable to re-create the songs with as lush and rich musical textures as on his album. But with technological trickery, Jens gave it his best shot. He re-created the sound of backing singers in Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig by recording vocal loops and layering them. For Shirin he ‘ooohd’ softly a harmony to accompany his singing and guitar strumming. Apparently when he tours with his full band he is better placed to emulate the slightly extravagant, romantic, crooner style of his albums, but the ‘stripped down’ version was uniquely magical and intimate. I don’t think it would have been possible to foster the special vibe at this gig with a full band, as annoying as that might be for Jens. I hope when he returns next that he is able to do his compositions justice with a full band.

2007-12-22T13:19:00.000+01:00

2007

I've found it difficult to compile a list of 10 amazing albums for this list. Granted, all 10 of these albums are amazing, but I think quite a lot of new music has slipped past me this year. I have made it an early New Year's resolution to keep my ear to the ground, go to more gigs and buy more records. But here they are:

1. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Swedish singer/songwriter delivers the year's most romantic and fresh album. For sure. It is twee in places, bittersweet in others, and Jens Lekman is a lyrical genius; every line is like literary syrup.

2. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
Rilo Kiley's new album is modern, grown-up pop at its best.

3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Dark and dramatic second album, altogether undisappointing.

4. PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Haunting and melancholic folky perfection.

5. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
The same grnaduer as previous albums, with a little bit more pomp.

6. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Patrick Wolf lives out his pop star fantasy and it all comes true!

7. The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
A longing and melodic fourth album from Denmark's finest exiles.

8. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
Conor Oberst seems healthier and less cryptic in 2007, but if you listen close enough the demons are all still there.

9. Justice - Cross
Incredulous and lush soundscapes, Justice push the boundaries of recorded music with their debut album.

10. The National - Boxer
Elegant and heartfelt music; Matt Berginger's deep, clean vocals are something special.

I also thought Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is (EP) was the most excellent collection of five songs ever released, but at five songs, it ain't an album. Sorry.

I'm so so so so excited about new albums from Sons and Daughters, Love is All, Laura Marling, Late of the Pier, Noah and the Whale, These New Puritans to name but a few!

2007-11-26T00:47:00.001+01:00

I was your silver lining, but now I'm gold

I've been to see Rilo Kiley on two occasions this year, once in August and once last week. The show in August was at Islington Academy, a relatively intimate venue. Having only heard Moneymaker from their latest album, Under the Blacklight, I was blown away by their new material. The moment the beat of Breakin' Up started was a definitive moment in my relationship with Rilo Kiley. Their progression from country pop to country-disco-pop was clear. Actually, I'd say their transition was rather to 'the best pop band in the whole world'. I bought the album the next day and was swept away by Jenny Lewis' even dreamier warm vocals, their glistening lyrics (really...), perfectly timed chord changes and west coast horizontalness.

When tickets for their gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire came on sale, I hesitated, wary that too many gigs mixeth not with a full time job. Puting the album on again I quickly changed my mind and bought a ticket. The leaves fell, the wind picked up, it rained, my roof leaked and soon enough it was 19th November.

Three months down the line, Under the Blacklight has failed to sell a huge amount of albums or gain much airplay since the initial critical acclaim it attracted. The gig was nice and full and Shepherd's Bush is a beautiful big venue, with four levels, ornate decor and a big stage. With a glittering gold backdrop, everything was in place for Rilo Kiley to play their landmark UK date. And it was just that. The whole band was astounded by the screams and cheers as they took to the stage, climaxing when the opening guitar of 'It's a Hit' were played. It makes a nice change seeing American bands, the smaller ones tend to be very happy to be playing here and not totally sick of playing the same cities five times a year. Rilo Kiley have never done a vast amount of promo or shows here and I imagine an enthusiastic 2,000 strong crowd must be something of a surprise.

It's so reassuring to watch bands who clearly love playing live, and being in a band together, as much as Rilo Kiley do. Their smiles, interactions, playing guitars body2body make their already convincing pop music all the more convincing. Too often are bands insencere, tired, jaded, uninspired and delivering dull and directionless second albums. On album number four Rilo Kiley keep diversifying, developing and getting it right. If you haven't listened to anything yet, hope over to their myspace and listen to Silver Lining. It's perfect.