Hush The Many (Heed The Few)

Hush The Many (Heed The Few) are a folky quartet of musicians. Dubiously I could tag them as Post-folk, but this would only be due to the need chuck some sort of label at them. To suit their name, hushed vocals sit alongside finger picked guitar and atmospheric strings.

After seeing them live, I have to say that my first reaction to their "Mind The Sprall" EP was not entirely positive. I felt the production muddied the songs, and that some of the live beauty was lost. In the end though the songs shone through on me. So here for your entertainment are a couple of them.

Buy:
Song Of A Page 7"

Listen:
Paper Doll
Desire Pt II


Links:
Myspace
hushthemany.com

The Strange Death Of Liberal England

The Strange Death of Liberal England are a band that have been brought together through their shared love of the Montreal based constellation record label, and all the post-rock bands that grace its register. The Portsmouth quintet's sound harks back to this shared affection of bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think, but for me also share a rawer edge with, dare I say it, more popular acts such as The Arcade Fire.

Unlike the vast majority of post-rock bands, TSDOLE, sometimes inject the music with more vocal tales of Apocalypse, war and death, but interestingly, do not take the same attitude to crowd communication, instead holding up placards with phrases such as "Repent! Repent!" on them.

Anyway if all this talk of over the top pretentiousness has got you thirsty, here are a couple of tunes to get you going.

Buy:
A Day, Another Day (via recordstore.co.uk)

Listen:
Mozart On 33
Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Gave Us Wrought Division

Links:
Myspace
tsdole.co.uk

The Rakes @ Norwich UEA

In the era of their debut album Capture/Release, a Friday night would have been an apt time for a Rakes gig; a band who built their edgy, post-punk stylings around stories of work, work, work, pubbing, clubbing, and sleeping, especially with those who may seem undesirable in the cold light of day – the lyric “she was overweight, what did I do last night?” seems to sum it up succinctly – think Hard-Fi (if you can bear it) but far less awful. But this is 2007, and the band have inevitably moved on – their new album Ten New Messages showcasing a more expansive sound and altogether bigger issues – life and racial tensions in London post-7/7, for one. Unfortunately they seem to have been beaten to this concept by a matter of weeks by Bloc Party, but typically the NME have decided that the popularity of The Rakes should be over, scandalously giving the album 5/10 in a recent review – surely the Arctic Monkeys backlash will come shortly also. The enthusiastic and interestingly diverse from expectations crowd at this particular Friday night Norwich UEA gig, however, seemed uninterested in what any increasingly out of touch, sensationalist, essentially tabloid music weekly has to say about one of the best bands to come out of the post-Franz explosion.

I have little to say about the support acts; Norwich’s fine transport system transpired to allow us to miss first support band Love Is All, yet I imagine they were much the same as when they supported Regina Spektor at the Astoria last month – see previous review. The Holloways were the main support band, and while they generated interest from the enthusiastic kiddies at the front, they seemed a fairly average Libertines-esque indie rock band.

I first saw The Rakes alongside Editors as a relatively unknown support band to Franz Ferdinand in the cavernous Alexandra Palace two years ago – despite being a fan at the time, I recall they seemed lost in such a large venue. Yet in the confines of the UEA’s Lower Common Room they create a frenzied atmosphere, no doubt enhanced by the vibrant lighting setup and lead singer Alan Donohoe’s well-documented jerky dancing style – think Ian Curtis, but apparently he’s no influence – which got the crowd moving in imitation from the off. The angular post-punk guitar of the music itself does tend to lend itself to throwing shapes, with the band rattling through tracks from both albums in their tight set. Retreat, Strasbourg and a raucous 22 Grand Job elicited the biggest reactions from the crowd, many obviously unfamiliar as yet with much of the recently released new album – however new single We Danced Together, the catchy Trouble, excellently titled When Tom Cruise Cries and “one for the girls” Little Superstitions all went down well. Early b-side Ausland Mission and one-off single All Too Human also received airings, with the latter particularly well received. The classic Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) from their debut rounded off the main set, and an encore including Open Book with its singalong refrain and a truncated version of the originally near-18 minute The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect ended the gig, written as a commission for a fashion show and now forming the opener to the new album (thankfully clocking in recorded at a much more manageable five minutes).

We were able to meet the band after the gig and they were very friendly chaps with a lot of time for their fans; The Rakes are fully deserving of reaching the heights of a number of their contemporaries. Whether the NME with their obvious influence on the flavour of the month will allow this to happen seems to be in doubt, but Donohoe’s comments in his mid-set banter on the review seem to suggest he doesn’t particularly care, and nor should those with any taste for a decent British guitar rock band not afraid to break away from their safety net.

Brakes @ Paradiso

The pineapple seen in the background was thrown into the audience before "a song about animals and fruits", 'Porcupine or Pineapple'

After being a fan of singer Eamon Hamilton's previous band British Sea Power (he was temporarily recruited to play keyboards at their live shows) I was very curious about his newest project, Brakes.

Their support act was Spinal Tap-esque heavy metal band Saxon. By support act I mean the entrance to the small hall (where Brakes were playing) is opposite the entrance to the balcony of the main hall, so the few people who arrived early for Brakes found themselves waiting amongst headbanging bikers. It was an experience I was prepared to forget until I turned around and saw the whole of Brakes were watching too.

After a few songs I walked over to the small hall convinced it should be filling up by then. Evidently, I was wrong:


By the start of their 30 song set, which included a mix of tracks from their two albums, a few b-sides and two Camper Van Beethoven covers ('We Saw Jerry's Daughter' and 'Shut us Down'), there were about 60 people in the hall.

The band surprised me with their ability to capture the sort of energy you'd expect from a punk band when playing songs they described as "jangly guitar pop" and "barndance country" and several 10 second tracks such as 'Cheney', with lyrics like " ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. Cheney, Cheney, Cheney.... Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, Cheney... STOP BEING SUCH A DICKKKKK". The audience was fantastic, I think this was partly due to the fact that there were a group of about 10 people who had been following them on this tour and were therefore extremely enthusiastic (starting a Cotton Eye Joe style barndance during Brakes' Johnny Cash cover "Jackson", for example).

The band seemed to really be enjoying themselves, so much so that guitarist Tom White got through about 4 changes of guitar due to broken strings. However, I'm certain that singer Eamon Hamilton had enough energy in his voice alone to captivate the audience. This is a band that are infinitely better live than on record, and judging by the size of the audience last night, they are terribly underrated in that respect.

Amongst the highlights of the gig for me was 'No Return', their most mellow track, where drummer Alex took to the guitar. Eamon's voice really shone on such a quiet song and the sounds coming from Tom White's guitar were quite simply stunning. During their set closer, 'Huevos Rancheros' (direct translation= Spicy Eggs), Tom jumped into the audience during his solo and proceeded to throw himself about in front of the stage.

Brakes definitely set themselves apart in my mind from any of the bands that they have been compared to so often (The Rakes, The Futureheads, etc) and it was a highly enjoyable experience.

The Shins @ The Astoria

Another NME Awards Show at the Astoria brought The Shins back across the water for their first proper UK gig since the release of third album Wincing the Night Away. The album went to number 2 in the US Billboard charts upon release, showing their development into a more mainstream market in their home country – they may not have reached similar levels in the UK, but a long sold-out Astoria welcomed them back to the UK enthusiastically. Before that, however, three support acts graced the stage. First on were Alberta Cross, a folk-rocky four piece with lots of hair who were, I thought, reminiscent at points of Turin Brakes. Their set was enjoyable and worth investigating further.


The next support act I was very excited about seeing: I first heard about Texas band Voxtrot around April last year, and, having talked incessantly about them to all and sundry since then, I was delighted to be able to see them on their first trip to the UK. Their set included songs from their three so-far released EPs, kicking off with Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives and later Soft & Warm, Raised By Wolves and luckily squeezed in at the end due to a couple of spare minutes, their most known song, The Start of Something. When given the opportunity to be free from his guitar in Your Biggest Fan, lead singer Ramesh Srivistava bounced around the stage like a man possessed. Having already blogged about them a few weeks back I won't go into just why they're so great, but their self titled debut album featuring entirely brand new material, none culled from the EPs, will be released in May and it should be a highlight of the year's releases.

The third and final support act were Manchester's Polytechnic. I'd heard their name in various places before but wasn't sure what to expect from them: it turned to be an enjoyable but fairly uninspiring set of indie rock. They don't seem to have been making many waves in the industry of late, so I was surprised that they were main support rather than Voxtrot, who have an ever-increasing fanbase and a sound closer to that of the headliners, who made their entrance at just past 9pm. An extended intro to new album opener Sleeping Lessons built up the anticipation in the crowd before they raced through the first four tracks to the album in order, declaring it to be "face-meltingly awesome". One of the biggest cheers of the night came next for the classic Kissing the Lipless, with New Slang, Caring Is Creepy, Saint Simon and set closer So Says I from their first two albums also delighting the audience, who sang every word back at James Mercer. They also included a cover version in their encore, apparently by The Modern Lovers. I found it fairly unremarkable, but the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, frontman Mercer leaving his bandmates to deliver the crowd banter throughout the set. The addition of a new keyboardist has certainly 'rocked-up' their live sound in comparison with the recorded versions, and after hearing previous reports of them being a disappointing live act, they dispelled this with a great performance showing them to be worthy of their increasing success.

Guillemots @ The Octagon, Sheffield

Possibly the best concert experience I've ever had.

My sister and I had just stepped out of the hotel and were walking towards the venue when in the distance, 20 metres away, I recognised someone who was walking towards us. As she got closer I realised it was Arista and that Magrão, Greig and a few roadies were following a few metres behind. After they'd passed us, me and my sister stopped and turned around to see them walking into a restaurant just opposite our hotel.

After a failed attempt at snapping a photo of the restaurant window from outside, my sister convinced me that I was a wimp and would be missing out on meeting one of my favourite bands if I didn't go in.. so I did. After apologising for disturbing their meal, we got a photo with them, left the restaurant, went around the corner and squealed a bit.


Two hours later...
On the way into the concert Magrão stopped me and my sister, much to our surprise/delight, and handed us VIP passes.

The concert itself was fantastic. They played a lot of crowd favourites such as 'Made-Up Lovesong #43', 'Annie, Let's Not Wait' and 'Trains to Brazil' as well as less popular EP tracks like 'She's Evil' (where Magrão takes centre stage), 'The Dormouse and the Meerkat' (a b-side rarely played live) and four new songs. Fyfe also played a memorable solo acoustic version of 'We're Here'.

After asking the "Golden Ticket" holders to come backstage, they band proceeded into their final song, 'São Paulo'. We were given labcoats and then, during the final half of the song, we were led onstage by a roadie and told to hit a large metal bird with the drum sticks we'd been given. We happily obliged. When the song ended we were led backstage to have a few beers with the band and the rest.. well, that's saved for the deep inner faults of my mind (and possibly my livejournal..).

The morals of this entry.. stalk your favourite bands, always accept VIP passes (apparently they have a lot of trouble finding people to accept them!!) and.. look out for members of Guillemots before the show if you ever go and see them.




Photographs courtesy of my sister.

Regina Spektor @ The Astoria

The pleasingly central location in London of the Astoria was the setting for one of the many NME-branded Award Shows, showcasing a diverse range of headliners and a larger than normal set of support acts. First up to support Regina Spektor was Only Son, an unintelligible New Yorker who gained nothing from the sound setup in the venue. Using an iPod as his backing band, he strummed his way through a series of unremarkable yet fairly pleasant songs. He ended his set with a bizarre 'acceptance speech' for nothing in particular which no one could understand.

Next on stage were Brinkman, a three piece London band playing fairly standard Britpop, but an enjoyable performance with the standout track being the heartfelt A Real Thunderbolt which has been a favourite of mine for a few weeks. Sweden's Love Is All were the third support band, and they were very Swedish indeed. Punky, energetic indie pop with a shouty female singer and enthusiastic saxophonist who refused to allow Regina Spektor's grand piano, taking over much of the stage, stop him from pogoing about as much as possible.

After more music over the PA from a DJ with a Radiohead fixation (5 tracks were counted through the course of the evening), Regina Spektor made her way onstage and delivered a stunning unaccompanied Ain't No Cover and from then onwards she had the crowd transfixed. The majority of her set came from her two most recent albums Soviet Kitsch and 2006's Begin to Hope. She also played fan favourites such as Bobbing for Apples and Baby Jesus.

For the second half of the set, Regina was accompanied by a band, unlike her most recent visit to the UK. Songs like Carbon Monoxide and Better were reproduced far closer to their recorded counterparts than had previously been seen at Regina's shows.

Regina was amazing, showing off her vast range of vocal talents as well as piano and the odd bit of guitar. Her personality shone through the songs; no other performer could ever get away with covering her. A truly captivating, brilliant gig.

Patrick Wolf @ The Junction 2

February 2007 has possibly been the best month I have ever experienced gig wise. I've played my first proper gig as well as going to see the likes of The Decemberists. With Regina Spektor to come this evening and The Shins later in the month you'd be forgiven for forgetting about Patrick Wolf and his relatively lowly levels of stardom. On the basis of this performance, ignoring him would be a great sin against the world.

He played in a small theatre type venue in Cambridge known as the Junction 2. At only 300 capacity the gig couldn't be described as anything but highly intimate. The gig began with the weirdest/scariest support act I have ever seen in my life; "No Bra" (literally). No Bra is a 6ft naked she-male (complete with moustache), mumbling her depraved insanities over simplistic techno. Personally I found it both hilarious and scary in equal measures. Yes, if she'd taken one step forward I would have taken two back, but at the same time when she moved onto another purely shocking topic it still raised humoured eye brows.

After an inordinately long wait Patrick Wolf entered the stage to face a crowd that had started to grow increasingly impatient. His stage presence and charisma was magnificent; I'd been expecting a slightly over-theatrical kid, but instead he paraded the stage with elegance. Playing through a good selection of songs from his two released albums, and new effort The Magic Position, everything sounded perfect other than, strangely, the ukulele, which sounded horribly tinny and scratchy - like the strings were far too tight or something.

Highlights for me were my new favourite The Stars and emphatic closer The Magic Position.

Arcade Fire Vs The Decemberists

After having so much to do recently my review of seeing Arcade Fire live late last month got pushed back and back. All the way until past me seeing The Decemberists a week ago today. So now instead of writing about both the events separately, I'm going to face them off against each other in a North American, Canada vs USA, fight to the death.

The first of the two gigs took place in St John's Church, Westminster. The church's large stage is normally put to use for orchestras but took a break from it's classical background to welcome Canada's finest, Arcade Fire. In fact they seemed slightly out of ease with the run of three concerts, not even publishing them in their official listings for the month.

The band ran through 10 of the 11 songs from their new album, the aptly titled (for the surroundings) Neon Bible. To my vast disappointment only a couple of songs from the band's debut, Funeral were bellowed around the church. A couple more songs really wouldn't have gone amiss, as without a support act, and a set length of only 1 hour 15 minutes did make the gig seem a little short (especially considering all the traveling I had done that day to get there).

The performance of course though was outstanding, with up to 10 members on-stage at once, all singing at the top of their voices whilst playing a powerful mix of unusual and not-so-unusual instruments. Everything sounded perfect, acting as a real compliment to the acoustics of the church. The talk-about moment of course had to be the unexpected acoustic, mid-crowd, performance of The Clash's Gun's of Brixton which opened the gig. Megaphones, a double-bass, and a mandolin, made this a very different kind of cover. The picture above (taken by me of course :P) is of Win standing on a chair in the middle of the crowd mid-song.

Eight days later The Decemberists took the stage at the far more normal venue of Shepherd's Bush Empire. To begin they played absolutely breathtaking performances of The Crane Wife and Island, Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll not Feel the Drowning. Performances which I would have been very happy with as highlights of the evening, only they were not; there was not a single song The Decemberists performed that didn't have me spellbound. They performed songs from all of their albums giving the crowd, in my opinion, almost exactly what they wanted (of course if the crowd had been just me, the crowd wouldn't have been so happy with the lack of The Gymnast, High Above the Ground).

The showmanship of The Decemberists almost stood out even more than the songs themselves. They got the crowd participating in a surprisingly large range of activities. Front man Colin Meloy started these proceedings with a bout of "mid-show calisthenics" and this was followed by the old splitting the crowd into several large choirs to sing in 16 Military Wives. Whilst we've all been in a crowd doing this kind of thing before, it really worked here, and I enjoyed it far more than I'd ever expect to. A devastatingly good rendition of Sons and Daughters climaxed with the whole crowd smiling wholeheartedly whilst bellowing out "Hear all the bombs, they fade away" with their exhausted voices. Several crowd members even got to go on stage and bounce around with Colin Meloy, who was obviously enjoying himself, which is always nice to see.

The fun continued right through into the two encores with guest appearances from Robyn Hitchcock and Mike Scott (who are a little unknown to someone my age, but evidently from the reaction of the crowd, not to everyone else). They finished the evening with a highly unexpected reenactment of part of the American civil war during A Cautionary Song, where the crowd were split down the middle so we could scowl at each other from the opposite sides of the battle.

Whilst both gigs won't be forgotten by any of there attendees easily. Arcade Fire were forced into retreat by the sheer amount of smiling The Decemberists caused. It wasn't the songs that put Decemberists far and above on top for me, but instead the showmanship; those little extras that showed the crowd that the band really cared about making sure their fans have a good time. All other bands should take note and follow The Decemberists' example.

Margot and The Nuclear So and So's

Nearly a month after I wrote 90% of this post I'm going to bring it to you. Damn I hate the exam seasons. Anyway late but still intact... enjoy.

Margot and the Nuclear So and So's are a musical collective with a really silly name from Indianapolis. Their first album, Dust Of Retreat, was released in the first couple of months of last year, but as normally I have stayed firmly behind the times and so I bring it to you now.

Their music is mostly pretty folky and possibly a bit too nice for a lot of tastes, very easy to like and get into. The album is pretty consistently catchy, with, for me a couple of stand out tracks.

The obvious choice is Skeleton Key, but it has been writen about all over the place (A quick search of the hype machine will show you a load of results). Instead I am going to write about the much more unassuming Jen Is Bringin' The Drugs.

Jen Is Bringin' The Drugs brings you Margot and the Nuclear So and So's in their most stripped down form. A good track in the acoustic guitar + vocals tradition it has everything it should. A catchy, sing-along melody and interesting lyrics pen this track as one of my favourites of the moment. Some of the lyrics are brilliantly witty in my opinion, yet constantly stark and a tad depressive:

And Jen don't wanna be seen,
But I saw her in a swank magazine.
She had an airbrushed face,
But the lines of distaste
were crossed without crossing of legs.

Buy:
The Dust Of Retreat (via Amazon)

Listen:
Jen Is Bringin' The Drugs (via Sendspace)
Skeleton Key (via Sendspace)

Links:
Myspace
margotandthenuclearsoandsos.com

Errors

Errors are a band I have recently discovered from that hotbed of musical genius, Glasgow. However, unlike the typical indie pop or post-punk bands the city has historically produced, Errors make electronica, with comparisons being drawn, amongst others, to their fellow countrymen Boards of Canada. Their spectacularly titled debut EP How Clean Is Your Acid House? is a great collection on repeat on my iPod, taking obvious influences from the typical electronica staples like Four Tet and Squarepusher, as well as seemingly some post-rock: indeed, they're signed to Mogwai's own label, Rock Action Records and have supported them on tour, as well as eclecticly supporting Sons and Daughters and Explosions in the Sky.

Mr Milk, the opening track, is brilliantly catchy and builds up into a multi-layered mishmash of bleeps, beats and buzzes that somehow works and is even, dare I say it, danceable. Terror Tricks and Crew Cut have indistinguishable computerised vocals beneath the fits and starts of drumbeats, fuzzy guitar, addictive basslines and, err, more computer noises. Last track Songos Ya Mongos! even has a riff recognisable as a guitar! Praise from the critics is reverberating around the Clyde for this lot; they're certainly promising.

Buy:
How Clean Is Your Acid House? (via Rock Action Records)

Listen:
Mr Milk
Crew Cut
Songos Ya Mongos!

Links:
weareerrors.com
Myspace

Chris Garneau

Looks like Yoni Wolf and sounds like Sufjan Stevens.

I've found a description of Chris Garneau's music which perfectly summarises my thoughts, so I will borrow a few words from (Chris Garneau@last.fm) to start off with:

"Beautiful and sad music... balanced on the edge of melancholy and hopefulness. For quiet evenings and pure mornings. Piano, cello, haunting and graduating melodies, beautiful airy vocals."

Garneau creates delicate pop songs that are infused with elements of jazz. They often only consist of piano and vocal parts, but Garneau is not afraid to use his voice in a way reminiscent of Regina Spektor to create diverse sounds, textures and emotions. This might not be coincidence, as it is obvious that he is a fan from a list of his "favorite enemies" on his myspace site. The third track on the album, 'Black & Blue', even shares a short piano part with Spektor's 'Samson'.

Garneau reminds me a lot of Sufjan Stevens; his songwriting, vocal technique, his delicate and relaxing melodies with Moldy-Peaches-esque charm. The fact that every song is good enough to deserve its place on the record reminds me a lot of Damien Rice's 'O'.

" I'm always going to worry about this, but you'll tell me 'It's okay, Chris' "

His originality can be easily heard on the final track of the album, 'Between The Bars', originally written and recorded by Elliott Smith (found on his album 'Either/Or'). Personally, I'm not a fan of covers on albums, but Garneau makes this song his own, and for a listener who had not heard the original, this song would not be out of place on this record. The vast amount of emotion on this track can mainly be creditted to Garneau's vocal part, which I think is one of his best on the entire record.

Thanks to Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and his recommendation to the record company Absolutely Kosher, Chris Garneau's debut album, 'Music For Tourists', will be released into shops later this month. It is, however, available for preorder and shipping from the Absolutely Kosher site.


Listen:
Relief (sendspace)
Baby's Romance (sendspace)
Between The Bars (sendspace)

Tycho, Welcome 2007, etc.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. There's not been any particularly good reason for my absence, so I'll save you the excuses. It's a new year, and looks to be a great one for music. Releases are expected from big names such as The Arcade Fire, Radiohead, The Shins, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Sufjan Stevens... and undoubtedly there will be the emergence of many new talents. I hope I'm not being over optimistic in my wishes that 2007 is as good a year as any other!


Today, I thought I'd bring some electronica to the mix in the form of Tycho. Tycho is the brainchild of a San-Franciscan guy named Scott Hansen. Despite being better known for his work as a graphic artist, I'm quite partial to Hansen/Tycho's music. Reminiscent in many places to the works of Boards of Canada, with vast, placid soundscapes, Tycho's music is in a class of music that I classify as bipolar. Rather than mentally unstable, this sort of music is the type that you either have to give your full attention to, or let entirely slip in to the background. Try and find a middle ground, and you lose all the enjoyment. Either meander along the well thought out ebb and flow through his LP 'Past Is Prologue', or appreciate the intricate details, the carefully chosen samples, being used to separate this music from the rest.

Tycho's strength lies in his ability to take a vast electronic soundscape and infuse it with a certain soul, giving a hint to the hip hop influences of the music. Listening to the album, you're taken on a journey. One moment, the neon sounds of 'PBS' conjure visions of fluorescent urban scenes, and the next 'Send and Receive' is taking you along a winding coastal road through Mediterranean towns. This record is not particularly groundbreaking, but it doesn't try to be. It knows what it's aiming for, and it hits the target. Overall, it is a very enjoyable listen.

Micah P. Hinson

Micah P. Hinson is a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas who produces music that has an americana/alt-country slant, with hints of gospel and blues.

He has released two albums, 'Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress' and 'Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit', and in 2005 his earlier (2001) 4-track recordings were rerecorded and released on a record called 'The Baby & The Satellite', a nine track EP where the final track consists of the entire 30 minute original demo.

For me, his music is a mixture of Willy Mason's blunt yet emotional vocal style (however, Micah's vocal technique seems to be a lot more refined), Conor Oberst's fusion of the rock, indie and country genres and M. Ward's storytelling through lyrics, with bursts of Beirut's grand instrumentation. Three records that are worth a listen for fans of any of those artists.

"..the press is really big in to the romanticizing of the destruction of the human soul. And that's fair enough, because at the end of the day, if I didn't have a half-ass reasonable story there would be nobody to talk about me. ..So I'll be the fucked up drug addict."

(you can read the remainder of a lengthy interview with him here)



Listen: Beneath The Rose from Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress (sendspace)
Listen: Jackeyed from Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit (sendspace)
Listen: The Leading Guy from The Baby & The Satellite (sendspace)

"A lot of people come up to me and say, “I really like the record. I illegally downloaded it and now I really want to buy it.” At the end of the day, I really don't care if people steal my music. If I can affect their lives, that's more important than getting ten bucks out of their pocket. Once ten dollars becomes more important than somebody's soul, I'm fucked and I should probably go put a gun in my mouth. Hopefully it won't come to that."

So he won't be too angry if you download them.

Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress (buy via Amazon)
Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit (buy via Amazon)
The Baby & The Satellite (buy via Amazon)

So this is the New Year, and I don't feel any different.

Continuing on a little bit from previous posts, I just thought I'd have a quick look at the transition from 2006 to 2007 with my top albums of last year and my most anticipated albums for the coming months..

2006

5. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Buy here via Amazon

"A mind that knows itself is a mind that knows much more"

The Avalanche is a collection of "Outtakes & Extras" from the Illinois album of 2005. This in no way implies that Sufjan Stevens was cashing in on his previous successes by releasing an inferior record. Tracks such as "The Mistress Witch From McClure (Or, The Mind That Knows Itself)" are up there with some of the best tracks on the Illinois album such as "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." and "Casimir Pulaski Day". There are 3 new versions of one of his most well-known songs, "Chicago", that I thought might get a bit tiring. I found them to be interesting variations, not just the album-lengtheners they could have been. So all in all this is a great album, in no way overshadowed by it's predecessor and thankfully for us, it brought with it a Sufjan Stevens tour (with St. Vincent, who I have to mention because had she released an album last year I'm sure it would have made this list).

Listen: The Mistress Witch From McClure (Or, The Mind That Knows Itself) (sendspace)

4. Hope of the States - Left
Buy here via Amazon

"If you sing a couple of words, the world moves"

This album took quite a while to grow on me because after having listened to their debut album The Lost Riots so much, I found that this one didn't quite match up to it. It took a while but after several binges of individual songs ("Sing It Out", "Blood Meridian", "The Good Fight", "Left", "This Is A Question") and when I stopped comparing the two albums, I realised that this record was full of great tracks but possibly it just wasn't as consistent as the previous release.

Listen: This is a Question (sendspace)

3. Howling Bells - Howling Bells
Buy here via Amazon

"You listen to trash, but it's not rock n roll"

This point in my list is when it started to get hard to order the albums as I seemed to have three albums without a bad track between the lot. I've yet to see a good comparison to Howling Bells, I guess it really is because no one's doing anything similar to them at a moment, which I find makes it hard to describe their music. It's indie rock with jangly electric guitars and haunting vocals.. it's upbeat but there seems to be a constant darkness hovering over it.. and it's catchy without ever being too bold.

Listen: Low Happening (sendspace)
Listen: The Night is Young (sendspace)

2. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Buy here via Amazon

"We think the same things at the same time, we just can't do anything about it"

I'm not sure that there's much to say about this album that hasn't already been said before. Intelligent, accessible electronica with catchy melodies and a perfect balance of electronic sounds and live instruments. I think anyone with a vague interest in what one of the world's most respected artists does on a solo record will have already heard this album, so it's useless for me to shamelessly promote it.

Listen: Harrowdown Hill (sendspace)

1. Guillemots - Through the Windowpane
Buy here via Amazon

"The world is our dancefloor now"

Finally, the album that beat Thom Yorke to the number 1 spot. I've written enough about why this album is so great before, so I'll just link to some tracks instead of repeating myself. Linked below, São Paulo is a track that can only be described as epic.

Listen: São Paulo (sendspace)

2007

1. Radiohead
Buy here via Amazon
Listen: Videotape (Thom Yorke solo piano) (sendspace)

2. Guillemots
Buy here via Amazon
Listen: 21st May (Live) (sendspace)

3. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Buy here via Amazon
Listen: Endless Entertainment (sendspace)

4. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Buy here via Amazon
Listen: Intervention (sendspace)

5. Fyfe Dangerfield
Buy here via Amazon
Listen: Delusia (sendspace)

Voxtrot

My overexcitement at discovering Voxtrot are to support The Shins at the London Astoria in February has led me to post about this Texas indie pop band I have been extolling the virtues of for many months. An album is currently being worked on, and they have released three EPs: 2005's Raised By Wolves, followed by Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives in April 2006, and Your Biggest Fan last November. Tracks like the deceptively simple The Start Of Something, with its irrevocably catchy melody, bouncy bassline and lyrics like "if I die clutching your photograph, don't call me boring, it's just 'cause I like you" evoke obvious comparisons to The Smiths, as do their very indie EP covers. The songwriting across all their releases so far is consistently brilliant - on Soft & Warm, singer Ramesh Srivastava laments, "I'd leave you for the person you used to be," while a nod to their indie pop heritage comes on Trouble with "I bought your record out on Cherry Red/it wasn't good well it was great" . Voxtrot do not just rely on the lyrics, however: Missing Pieces has a guitar riff that would make any NME writer giddy, while Your Biggest Fan and Trouble bounce along with the jangle of The Lucksmiths. Srivastava's vocals also bear more than a little resemblance to those of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch on Whiskey. With Voxtrot gaining a fanbase in the States and widespread critical acclaim on the strength of these EPs and live performances, the album release can be expected at some point in 2007.

Buy:
Raised By Wolves EP (via Amazon)
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives EP (via Amazon)
Your Biggest Fan EP (via Amazon)

Listen:
The Start of Something (via official site)
Trouble (via official site)
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives (via official site)

Links:
voxtrot.net
Myspace

2007 is upon us

The GMT clocks here in the UK have ticked us over into 2007, and so I would like to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Hope everyone has had / is having a proper celebration. We suggest these songs to stick on loud right about now.

Death Cab For Cutie - The New Year (buy here via Amazon)
Camera Obscura - Happy New Year (buy here via Amazon)
The Mountain Goats - This Year (buy here via Amazon)
Semisonic - This Will Be My Year (buy here via Amazon)
Badly Drawn Boy - I Love N.Y.E. (buy here via Amazon)

So what does 2007 bring for Too Much Biography? Well In the long run I hope for some more frequent and more interesting posts. In the short term look out for the continuation of our anticipated albums list, and over the coming weeks the first of hopefully many live reviews. Unfortunately several of the Too Much Biography writers have exams looming down on them so sorry if we appear to have forgotten about you all, don't worry we'll be posting as much as we can get away with.

Hope the new year brings everything you ever dreamed of.

Too Much Biography.