Scattered Black and Whites #1 - "Mr Bojangles" by Sammy Davis Jr

Hey readers. I've been toying for a while the idea of doing a series of posts with a common theme, all titled similarly and linked together. I've finally settled on "Scattered Black and Whites". This is going to be a series where I post about pieces of music and songs that are special to me. Ones that hold distinguished places in my memory. Ones that I associate really memorable experiences with. Some funny, other sad, others romantic, some totally strange and perhaps inexplicable. I'm not going to regularly schedule them, I'll just let them come as feels natural. I hope as well that I might prompt you to think of music that's special to you and why :)

I thought I'd start with my single favourite song of all time, a song I've loved since I was a little kid and that has stayed close to my heart even as I've discovered more and more music as I've gotten older. The song is Mr Bojangles by Sammy Davis Jr.



My favourite type of music has always, and I imagine will always be, Big Band music. The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and all the others who floated in and out of the group - are just, for me, one of the most amazing bunch of artists to cross the earth. I got introduced to them by my mum and my grandparents just as I was getting to an age where my mind was opening up to music and the part it could play in my life. It started when my mum bought Robbie Williams' Rat Pack covers album Swing When You're Winning. The mention of such a thing may immediately destroy any musical credibility you think I may have, but I don't apologise. It's a very, very good album of Big Band music. And hearing it made me want to hear the originals, so I did and at some point my parents bought me Sammy Davis Jr's greatest hits.

I spent a good portion of my early and pre-teens listening to nothing but Big Band and Jazz and somehow, through it all, "Mr Bojangles" stood out to me above everything else. I don't associate it with any particular experience, but I just fell in love with it. It might be the story. It's so beautifully heartbreaking. It's about washed up, alcoholic old dancer, Mr Bojangles, who looks back and his life and just sees all his wasted time and talent. It might seems strange that a 12 year old white kid fell in love with a song sung by a black guy from his grandparents' generation about a drunk old music hall dancer. Arguably, you have a point. But still.

This song just strikes a chord with me somewhere and I don't know where. I just love it so much. It has such a gentle, lilting pace to it. It strolls along sounding so wonderfully melancholy, all the tragic lyrics played against the smile you can hear in Sammy Davis' voice as he plays the part of the old reminiscent Bojangles. And he's said himself that he relates so strongly to the song, and that really comes through. The way he tells the story, he's just so into it. It might seem cheesy or corny to someone without any idea about the song or big band music, but to me it's just so honest. Maybe that's why it resonated with me at a young age. I think I saw that this guy was honest and real. And maybe that's what made me so particular about artists being honest and having integrity in my subsequent musical discoveries.

I don't know how you'll feel about the song. If Big Band and what not isn't your thing then it might just seem a bit alien and ridiculous. But I hope not. And even if it does, I don't care. This song is incredibly special to me. Heck, it's even my karaoke song. But more on that at another time perhaps.

The Flaming Lips: Free Radicals

I hope you've heard of The Flaming Lips. If you haven't, watch this and sort yourself out:



Good! The Flaming Lips are one of my favourite bands, for a whole list of reasons I won't entirely go into. They're just the coolest middle aged men ever. Wayne Coyne is basically the musical version of Robert Downey Jr (though I think that he's probably still taking drugs)

Anyway, this post in inspired by the fact that Wayne and co have just announced that they're going to be releasing a new song for free every month in 2011. It's similar to Kanye West's "G.O.O.D Fridays" scheme last year, where he released a new track every Friday between summer and Christmas. It was, I have to say, pretty awesome.

They've also announced that their first release may very well be a collaboration with chillwave heavyweight Neon Indian; so we should be in for a whole load of crazy. But this announcement from a band as high profile (in indie terms) as The Flaming Lips just got me thinking about the way bands release music.

We all know that we live in a world where paying and waiting for music is becoming an increasingly alien concept to people, teenagers especially. And in such a climate, bands are under increasing pressure to find new ways to release their music, keep it interesting, show their fans that they're passionate about their music in a real way. That's just what The Flaming Lips are doing here. So I've got 4 thoughts about The Flaming Lips' model of release for the coming year; thoughts that I hope are relevant to both them and other musicians who do similar things:

1. It creates anticipation
Like I said, the idea of queueing up outside a record store in the pissing rain for hours to get hold of your favourite band's record is alien to pretty much everyone my age (18) When music can be downloaded (legally or illegally) in seconds now, no one has any sense of anticipation for music any more. In such a world, a band has to hype up anticipation even more. It's (rarely) enough to rely on one release date to create some genuine anticipation. But when you know there's new music to look forward to every week (like with Kanye) or every month (now with The Flaming Lips) though, that gives the excitement back. Maybe it's reduced version of the old kind of anticipation people used to have over a much longer period of time, but it certainly does the trick. It's a counter to being satisfied with whatever plops itself in the charts.

2. It's on their own terms
Again, illegal downloading is what comes into play here. The horrendous over-accessibility afforded by downloading means that acquiring music has been put onto the terms of the downloader. They get music when they want, where they want and who they want. Couple this with internet record leaks and grainy YouTube videos, and artists have so little control over how their music is distributed and controlled. With a scheme like this, it puts that control back in their hands. Sure the tracks will be available on P2P sites soon enough, but it's been released entirely on the terms of the artist.

3. It keeps the artist on their toes
Wayne Coyne himself has said that the prospect of putting out another album in the conventional way this year didn't really appeal to the band. It's great to see a band (especially one as middle aged as The Flaming Lips, though Wayne Coyne is a silver fox if ever there was one) challenging themselves in new ways, changing the way they do things. It keeps them fresh and means they're not going to keep churning out albums just because that's what bands do. And a logical conclusion of that is...

4. It stimulates creativity
Doing things in a new way, against a different time frame and with a different focus will always stimulate your creativity because you've got to go about things differently. If you keep doing the same processes and routines then, even in a band, and one as trippy as The Flaming Lips, creativity starts to fizzle out. This whole thing has already got them onto talk of a collaboration with Neon Indian, so this new avenue of releasing and creating music has, in turn, meant they get to collaborate with another artist, which will send both the Lips and Neon Indian off into awesome new realms of psychadelic creativity. Over the last couple of years, Beck has been running his "Record Club" project, where he gets a load of the indie communities greatest together (participants have included Thurston Moore, MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Wilco and err... Wolfmother) and they cover a classic album in a day. It's yielded (largely) very good results. It stretches the artists involved, throws up fantastic creative interpretations of great music and spills over into the rest of the world. Beck is set to produce Thurston Moore's forthcoming solo album (and I pee a little in excitement whenever I think about that...)

I don't think it's gimmicky or a commerical ploy (the tracks are free remember) As they're such a big band, they can afford to release everything for free in a given year, I'm not saying that's a precedent for other, smaller bands of course. But The Flaming Lips really love their fans, and really take themselves seriously as a group.
So I'm massively excited for the forthcoming releases. This way of releasing stuff is great for them and, whilst I do love listening to whole Flaming Lips albums, its going to be a great experience for me as a fan.

Now watch this hilarious video from the brilliant site The Black Cab Sessions:

Flaming Lips from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

She & Him - "Don't Look Back"

I posted on She & Him a little bit before Christmas, and then this afternoon I came across the video for their single "Don't Look Back" and just really felt like sharing it because it massively brightened up my Sunday :D

The video's pretty crazy really, Zooey Deschanel going all Stepford Wives on us. It's all bouncy, hip shaking, shoulder shimmying 60s flare, and makes me feel a bit like I'm watching the 60s bit from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I keep expecting Hard Day's Night-era Beatles to wander in. Zooey's singing about the fact that you've got to move on and strike out in new directions in life, but you still like the reassuring presence of the past behind you. Pretty apt for her and musical partner M Ward in their line of nostalgic modern folk.

This video might just be Zooey Deschanel hopping about, incredibly aware of the fact that she is possibly the most beautiful thing to ever be anywhere at any time ever, inflaming the fantasties of every post-Juno indie kid around, but hey - I'm not complaining.

This is a disarmingly lovable song, and I hope it brightens up your day!

Ghosthorse: The End of Music

In the eclectic, mutating world of 21st century independent music, where the internet's most popular buzz genres are ones which sample music, film and adverts from the decades the artists grew up in, and where access to bedroom recording software and MySpace and file sharing, it's becoming increasingly rare that you hear something genuinely new. A band who sound as fresh and revelatory as the cry of your first born child, or as bright and striking as discovering a new colour on the underside of one of Jupiter's moons. There is, as they say, nothing new under the sun.

Until now.

Two prophets have arisen. Dissonant, crackling voices calling in the desert like the Harbringers of the inevitable, divine apocalypse. Two stark figures rising up against a blood red moon, in an image as distinctive and iconic as a shabbily clothed, pale skinned Daft Punk. Two men who have seen the future of Western music, looked into the swirling eye of the storm and from within drawn out the dazzling and terrifying sound of what music is destined for.

Ghosthorse.

Ghosthorse is a duo who hail from the southernmost tip of London. Despite their menacing, prophetic nature, the pair are fully identified as Michael Bateman and Ashley Watkinson, both young men in their early 20s. Both have been involved prolifically in various other projects in recent years, ranging from Watkinson's exploits as techo wizard Pummelhorse to Bateman's majestic electro duo Dude & Catastrophe. However, when the two put their heads together, they conceived debut album The Shoal.

The Shoal is the definition of the word "odyssey". It draws on elements as wide and diverse as you care to name and swirls them together in a discordant yet beautiful display of noise. Opener "The Rain" swirls and wheels like a lost thought in the rain, before harsh swathes of noise distort the ominous keyboard riff and Bateman launches in with a feral, life affirming scream, growling "We have brought this rain upon ourselves, we are men not Gods". "ambiants" thunders, lurches and beeps like the end of time, as if some giant monster were wading through history, annihilating the whole sordid history of Western music as he goes. This album, ladies and gentlemen, is the logical conclusion of the entire history of Western music. It is the full stop. It is the shuddering, glorious yet terrifying signature under musical history, and no other sound need be made from this point forwards.

"Why Why Simon Shippam?", the first Ghosthorse track ever penned (conceived, perhaps fittingly, at a graduation party) bemoans the state of modern man and his incapacity for change, personified in the mysterious "Simon Shippam" of the title. Watkinson finds his keyboards sounding even more apocalyptic than usual on this track, sweeping in with lone, death bringing whipcracks of synth noise. This is followed by the track "Quick, Togepi is Hatching!", the sole track penned and perfomed by Watkinson alone, and it is undoubtedly a highlight, finding him shredding a spasmodic, teetering keyboard solo that will leave you ready to die.

"Hate Machine" is the obvious hit single from the album, but is quickly followed by the album's glittering centrepiece - the 23 minute epic "The Withering Giant"; described humbly by the band as "the only track with any actual music ability displayed on it". Every shift in tempo is reflective of a part of the track's overarching lyrical theme - man kind's fall from grace and need for redemption. Bouncing keyboard riffs, gently gliding synth waves and distorted ukelele lull the track open and are soon joined by a bombardment of beats which make the whole history of dubstep seem miniscule, before the piece's arppegiated keyboard riff soars in like a majestic, glorious eagle, bringing the piece to life. Lyrically inspired shouting from Bateman and spoken word performances from Watkinson lend the track its triumphant philosophical air, and the whole opus climaxes with an inspired and soaring saxophone and keyboard duet. The penultimate movement of the piece chimes with all the glory and redemptive freedom of V Day, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of Thatcherism, the release of POWs. Finally, Watkinson lulls the listener to sleep in his gentle baritone over a keyboard riff which could be a single in and of itself.

The latter half of the album only extends the triumph that the album already evidently was at the end of "The Withering Giant". "Janet Skibbs" swells with post-industrial rage, while Merzdoh uses inspired sampling to create a damning portrait of human ignorance. Closer "Sea of Glass (Clear as Crystal)" ends on an almost circular note, reflecting the opening track. But at this end of the album, things are darker, more distorted and less clear than at the start.

Though in ways, things are more clear. It is clear that, after hundreds of years, Western music has reached its closure. Its final statement. All other sounds created, notes sung, albums crafted, songs writte, solos improvised, orchestras conducted have lead up to The Shoal. All sounds known to man find their resting place in this album. To enjoy it is not the point. To realise it as the towering, inarguable statement that it was inevitably going to become is the point. Discard all your record collections and musical instruments and become part of The Shoal. No other music is necessary. Bateman and Watkinson may bow before their stunned, now silent audience and draw up the curtain behind them, callin fini! upon the entire extravaganza that Western musical history has been. No other music should, or indeed could, ever be played again after The Shoal.

The band are allegedly working on a follow up, with rumours of release for late 2011.

Click here to download The Shoal. Click the red "Slow Download" button on the right.

Porcelain Raft - Have a Heart (Lonely Galaxy Cover)

Back at the end of October I wrote a post introducing Lonely Galaxy - an artist whom I'd come across on the delightful music website The Line of Best Fit.



He crafts massive, icy yet intimate soundscapes of swirling guitar sounds and raw vocals that pack overwhelming, emotional cacophony like the secret love child of Sigur Ros. Since that first post he's released a second, beautiful EP entitled EP2 (I know right). I hope he gets an album off the ground this year and I'd love to see him live.

The other day I was checking up the blog from the brilliant Transparent Records, and saw that label favourite Porcelain Raft had recorded a cover of Lonely Galaxy's "Have a Heart", the heartbreaking yet uplifting tale of a spurned lover from Lonely Galaxy's EP1 (Porcelain Raft recently teamed up with other label mates Yuck for a joint 7" release where the each band covered one of the other's songs. Sounds like the kind of guy you want at a karaoke party my friends...)



Porcelain Raft's cover really is a lovely variation on the original. Not as immediately guitar based as Lonely Galaxy's version, it fills with swirling and beeping electronic twiddles, huge upward waves of noise like gales, swirling around the slightly nasal, Sigur Ros-esque vocals of Mauro Remiddi (the real name of Porcelain Raft). The dynamics shift several times, drawing back then flooding in again, stronger and more powerful than before, like deep breaths; and the whole thing is underlined by a drum beat that literally sounds just like a heartbeat.

Be on the look out for both Porcelain Raft and Lonely Galaxy this year if you're a fan of swirling, beautiful, slightly dissonant noise.

Click here to go to the Transparent Blog page and download Porcelain Raft's cover of "Have a Heart" (right click the track name and click "Save Link/Target as")

Tribes

Out of the plethora of new bands being hailed by the NME and others as we amble hopefully, fresh faced and still dizzy from Kanye West's album into 2011, there's one who stand out in a slightly peculiar fashion. A lot of new British acts this year, especially the guitar based ones, are being complimented and hyped up for their Britishness - carrying on the torch/band/silly haircuts of previous generations. It varies from The Vaccines (awesome) to Brother (they make me physically sick, I kid you not) who both represent the revival of two strands of British guitar rock. I suppose every Oasis will generate a Blur in retaliation. And then there's producer turned subversive pop sensation James Blake, touted as the next step in UK dubstep's evolution. But there's one act that stands out amongst that patriotic backdrop though, and it's Camden's beloved, aloof and scruffy Tribes.

Tribes have been an incredibly elusive and intangible band for the past year or so. Identities shrouded in mystery, no physical releases, and very few live shows played. We know their names and faces now however (Johnny, Jim, Dan and Miguel - yes, Miguel), their very few early live shows resulted in them SOMEHOW being chosen to support PIXIES just a few gigs and no releases into their career! There are still no physical, or (legal) digital releases to speak of. They've stated that they didn't want to do "the whole MySpace" thing where their fanbase builds online. They're literally the one hyped act around right now who have gained their following through genuine, physical word of mouth and grassroots fans. They have what can genuinely be called a cult following, and have had lots of British indie fans frothing at the mouth.

The thing that makes them stick out amongst all of the new British acts being championed all over the shop this year however is that they are undyingly devoted and in love with American guitar music. Pavement, Sonic Youth, REM, Nirvana the aforementioned Pixies, have all been mentioned by the bands in interviews as beloved influences. The aforementioned NME has touted them "the best American band in Britain". Their Yankophilia is more than evident in the few songs available on their MySpace page - the grunge tinged "Fate on Tape" and "Whenever" echo Pixies and Nirvana both in terms of the fuzzy sound, but both boasting killer hooks. And "killer hooks" seems somehow inadequate to describe their demo of "We Were Children". It's streaming below, and in it's current bare bone format it is clear it's an amazing piece of songwriting. And their BBC Maida Vale session finally gave us a taster of what a studio version might sound like. Their music doesn't revel sounding lo-fi either, these songs would sound good anywhere. They've made it clear that their intended destination is not radio/commercial success. They're sincere about making people feel something with their music. That may seem like a cliched or even contrived statement, but it's so simple and youthful, I love it. Sometimes you can get a bit tired of overly cerebral, referential and intricate indie music. Tribes - not to call them stupid or simple - sound, right now, just so right and so timely.

If I had to make a snap judgement, I wouldn't say that they're the saviours of British guitar music, which everybody seems to be looking for this year. I think The Vaccines have that in store for them, but Tribes (I hope) should grow into a fantastic new British band, riding along on their own loose, ramshackle tangent.
Tribes don't even have a fully defined sound yet. They have no physical releases and just a mysterious comment saying "tour dates coming soon..." on their MySpace. And yet they've generated this much excitement. I can't wait for whatever happens next.

Tribes - We Were children by ITCManchester

Their session at the BBC's famous Maida Vale studios (organised by the NME and Radio 1's Huw Stephens) was videoed, is is available below, courtesy of the BBC!

Uncharted Waters

There's been a mini-furore going on in the UK music press over the last couple of days after the publication of an article in The Guardian which 'officially' declared that "ROCK MUSIC IS DEAD".

Time of death? 2010.

Cause of death? The article cited that the finishing blow administered to rock's allegedly pale, flacid corpse with only 3 guitar based tracks appearing in the UK Top 100 Best Selling Tracks of the Year - one being "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, Hey Soul Sister by Train (haha) and Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine. And the latter two are hardly the personifications of what rock music is all about.

Now there's a lot to be said on both sides of the fence. I agree with a lot of what BBC Radio 1's Fraser McAlpine says here on his tumblr post and there's also been a nifty response posted on The Quietus. But I'm (largely) not here to argue either way as to whether guitar music dead (because it patently isn't).

The thing that The Guardian article seems to say is that the reason rock/indie/general guitar based music is dead is because it isn't making millions of pounds clogging up the singles charts. Now, if you know me well or read this blog in any detail then you'll doubtless have heard me spitting various kinds of venom about the X Factor, deriding almost every "pop star" who somehow worms into the Top 10 - Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, The Black Eyed Peas, continue ad infinitum - and generally getting infuriated when they manage to become so successful with so little talent, selling themselves to a heartless record label that only cares about making money from a population whose creative taste buds have been numbed by over exposure to recycled, repetitive and repulsive pop/R&B/whatever. I felt incredibly pissed off when Matt Cardle reached #1 with his ATROCIOUS Biffy Clyro cover. I've steamed at the ears when I look at the charts and every name is unfamiliar to me, because pretty much any sponger willing to do whatever they're told by a record label can get into the charts.

But thinking about that fact, something occurred to me. Something that was quite a revelation.

The charts used to mean something. No they weren't a pure and blameless land of musical excellence or a continuous jam session between Beck, Damon Albarn and Paul McCartney riding musical unicorns, but still. There were times where brilliant artists, like The Beatles (overly classic example, but roll with me here), were recognised with chart success as well as musical success. But now, in an age where any scrounging bozo who can carry a tune can get a Number 1 single- Olly Murs, I'm looking,at you - the charts are just meaningless. They are devalued. Devalued by a flood of musically, lyrically bankrupt acts who are put there by labels to make money.

Rock's not dead.

The charts are.

The general public have become totally brainwashed to accept music that fits the mould that record companies have laid out. It amounts to a robbing of free will. When the general music buying public are cajoled and led into believing something is what it isn't, then the charts become meaningless. They don't represent what's beloved or inspiring. They represent what's backed up by the men in suits. Which makes them utterly redundant, and any figures in relation to them meaningless. The last time anything really inspiring and organic took the charts by storm was when Arctic Monkeys debuted at #1 with "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" in 2005. Since then, it appears that the grip has been tightened and the asphyxiating plastic bag held over our nation's cultural head has been tightened.

Rock, indie, guitar music, whatever - GOOD, honest music, whatever the genre("guitars aren't a genre" liek Fraser McAlpine said in the post I link to above) - may not be doing well in the charts at the moment. But that really doesn't matter. Because the charts are meaningless. They're as controlled and orchestrated as a cattle herd. So I think I'll just stop caring about it. I will probably still get frustrated at times at the injustice of it all, but I think I'll adjust. It's sad that a lot of the British people seem so subject to whatever is advertised or publicised to them when they gather round their TV screens. I just wish that more people could strike out on their own musical course, finding music for themselves that they love, that's special to them. Not stuff designed for the masses. I know all this all sound a bit Sixth Form, sub-V for Vendetta, pseudo-political, but it's true folks.

I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes. Made by Tommy Lee Jones. In Men in Black:

Tommy Lee Jones: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals - and you know it."

Kurt Vile - "Jesus Fever"

I came across Kurt Vile's name a couple of years ago and I think I just glossed over him without really investigating. Then at some point last year during a phase of indiscriminate free mp3 downloading, I acquired his track "In My Time" but, once again, didn't listen to it. Then at the end of last week, a few blogs started buzzing over his release of a free mp3 called "Jesus Fever", from his forthcoming LP Smoke Ring For My Halo.

"Jesus Fever" really is a beautiful little gem. It's warm, watery, fuzzy freak folk. There are layers of beautiful, swimming guitars that flow like rivers through the woods. The whole thing is one of those wistful folky songs about disappearing and losing yourself out on the road, and opens with what is currently my favourite lyric of the the new year: "I pack my suitcase with myself but I'm already gone..." I'm guessing (and sort of hoping) that the whole album is as full of wandering, lilting, psychadelic folk as this, and judging form the title and the lyrics of "Jesus Fever" I reckon it will be all about losing yourself and the fleeting nature of being human. Wonderful :)

If you're into loose, lush and blissful folky tunes then this is definitely for you.

It's available in lots of places, I got it from Gorilla vs Bear. Click here the go there and grab the mp3.

Going for Stroke...

If you like listening primarily to indie guitar music made by white guys after the year 2001, then you basically owe your entire musical life to The Strokes. Their 2001 debut Is This It? rewrote the rulebook for guitar music and it's undoubtedly the most influential album released this millenium.

The indie super giants have been wayward for a fair while now though, indulging in various side projects and constantly teasing us with talk of a new album, which keeps being pushed back.

Then, early this morning, we got what seemed to be our first real taste of their next album. Frontman Julian Casablancas shared with the world what he says is the album's artwork. And here it is:





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Now, as everyone who has written about this today will tell you, Julian Casablancas is not renowned for being a prankster. I'm not gonna hugely lay into it if this is the album cover (NME writer James McMahon does that rather amusingly here), but there are some album covers which are brilliant in their knowing terribleness. This is not one of them. To me, it doesn't come off as irony. Or does it? To be honest I'm not entirely sure. I don't know what it suggests about the sound of the record, but then I don't really know what to expect from this record. After Is This It?, The Strokes released two incredibly average albums - a fact which is conveniently glossed over most of the time. But even when acknowledged, it does nothing to dispel the fact that they are the most influential indie band of the decade.

In last week's edition of the NME, the band were hailing "The Return of the Great British Guitar Band". Now, obviously The Strokes are very much an American band, but there is, I sense, a craving for a new, exciting, classic guitar band. There are a lot of names being thrown about. The greatest chances we have are The Vaccines and Yuck, and perhaps Tribes if they ever properly record anything. I hope, pray and beg that Brother (a bunch of twats who somehow end up more sub-Oasis than The Enemy) experience no degree of success whatsoever. The US have also spawned some classic sounding fuzzy indie guitar rock over the past year like Wavves, Dum Dum Girls and Male Bonding, who all released incredibly well received albums. There are also a few others who are destined (if the music loving community is sensible) to prosper- Cloud Nothings and Cults being my two favourites!

So I guess I'm kind of saying "do we really need The Strokes right now?" Part of me feels like they've left it too long. I just don't see where they'd fit into the current indie landscape. Six years is an incredibly long time in music nowadays, and just look at how much indie guitar music has changed since 2005, when they released First Impressions of Earth. Mumford and Sons are the biggest selling "indie" act in the world right now! Kings of Leon, The Strokes' Southern pseudo-proteges are now a platinum selling stadium rock act who have climbed so far up their own arse that Bono has decided the only way to stay Top Overblown-and-Twattish Dog is to write a musical about superheroes. Does that sound like a world that five scruffy , rock and roll loving New Yorkers wearing leather jackets and scuffed Converses belong in?

But on the other hand of course, they're The friggin' Strokes! They wrote Last Nite! They're meant to be one of the greatest live bands of our time (I'm very much up for seeing these guys live...) Maybe we DO need them and we just don't know it! I'm in love with The Vaccines right now, but they COULD let me down. As could a million and one other new bands we all put our faith in. Despite the mediocrity of Room on Fire and First Impressions of Earth, I don;t think any of us can shake that first sublime encounter with Is This It? Right now is one of those times where you just so desperately WANT to believe...

It's ten years since The Strokes defined a decade. Could they define another one? I'm afraid I have no conrete answer for you folks. Only hope. And that pretty decent Julian Casablancas solo album. The world has changed, but there's never anything new under the sun. Only time will tell. But I do hope. Oh yes I do hope...

✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝ - "Anxieties"

I imagine that most of you who read my blog regularly won't have much of an idea about what Witch House is. It's up for debate whether your're lucky, woefully misinformed or spend a non-excessive amount of time on the internet. It's odd that I haven't posted on it because I listen to large amounts of it, I've just never gotten round to posting about it or really mentioning it, though I do tweet about it.

Basically, Witch House was the buzz genre of 2011. A massive amount of the blogosphere started going crazy over it, and I'm now sure that a sizeable chunk of said sphere is devoted to it. The genre isn't like many genres which emerge from similar areas or social groups. It surfaced organically online, starting with a few MySpace/blog artists posting tracks of creepy, slowed down electro noise. The scene has developed a joking fascination with the occult, death, morbidity and peppering track and album names with symbols and creepy lettering - Ðł$$Ø₡łλŦłVE ŦƦλ₦₡E Ðł$ØƦÐEƦ$, ▲|||, †‡† being just a few haunting my iTunes. The "fascination" with darkness, death and witchcraft is (most of the time...) actually part of a massive in-joke, which is by and large what the genre has been. Last year was a good year for hoax genres as a matter of fact, what with Die Antwood jokingly pioneering "zef", the hardcore gangsta rap of South Africa...



Die Antwoord were pretty funny and the tunes actually quite enjoyable for a while. Then the joke began to wear thin. A bit like Jack Black.

And as 2010 ended and 2011 began, I wondered what would happen to Witch House. Would it turn sour as quickly as chillwave, its preceding over-hyped electro sub-genre, which is already a cringe worthy memory among most respectable inernet music sources? Would it evolve, mutate, warp? Would it dilute and hit the charts, superceding dubstep?

Truth is folks, I'm not entirely sure. A massive amount of Witch House is unsurprisingly pretty crap to listen to. Yeah sure, I don't doubt (always) that the producer gets the joke. But I've still got to sit and listen to their track. I'm not doing that for a track that offers me nothing whatsoever.

Well in the midst of a lot of interminable Witch House dross, I stumbled across the blog Fokkawolfe several months ago. Fokkawolfe has been my main source and gateway for all things Witch House because it almost invariably manages to find the really good stuff! It's in my list of favourite music sites/blogs on the right of the screen so check it out, it's run by a 28 year old British dude called Laurence.

A while ago they posted on a Witch House act called ✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝. I liked their groove but didn't really investigate. Then, I checked on Fokkawolfe last week and discovered they'd made a new EP available for free, called Anxieties.

It's pretty immense folks. It's got so much going for it. It veers between crisp break beats, looming warped dubstep bass throbs and glaring dance synth. A lot of it is pretty dancey, and the atmosphere is fantasically dark. Waves of sound flood in one from side and crash against sharp, jagged shores of beats, throwing distorted screams, orchestras and synths around like the wreckage of an oil tanker. If you like electro, dubstep or anything dark and ominous, get in on this folks.

It's available on their Bandcamp page (click here) under a "name your price" policy, so you can grab it for free if you want. Two tracks streaming down below:







Like I've said, I don't know exactly what will become of Witch House this year. I do know however that quite a few Witch House artists have emerged out of the influx that are actually pretty talented at making electronic music. So watch out in future guys. Hope you find these ✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝ tracks as cool as I do. Best Witches.

Hourglass Sea - Epic Electronica!

Whilst aimlessly roaming the blogosphere, close to one in the morning (as I often do), I was fairly pleased with my evening's music exploration, and was considering turning the lights off and heading off to beddy-byes, when I remembered it had been a while since I checked out Tympanogram, one of my favourite blogs listed on the right of this page. The festive period is pretty dry when it comes to new releases (although a few beauties got thrown up, but maybe more on that some other time) and I had been spending a lot of time checking out other blogs/sites and somehow overlooked Tympanogram.

Sifting through the plethora of New Year's "Introducing..." posts these guys have done, I came across a post on Hourglass Sea. My intentions to shut down and go to sleep where quickly curtailed.

Hourglass Sea (stage name of Bradford based Dean Bentley) is some of the best electronica I've unearthed online in AGES. He has two tracks available for free download over at Tympanogram and they are both awesome.

"Teenagers" is a massive, intense, blistering blitzkrieg of glitzy beats, expertly stolen video game sounds and drum sounds that (if they're not computerized) would make a drummer's hand bleed buckets. This is how I like my electronica. It veers in several directions, with half a dozen things going on at once, creating an insane, overloaded, epileptic fit of a track. It's quite reminiscent of Crystal Castles first album, but breaks into it's own totally unique 8-bit strain. A spasmodic, glitchy synth and drum opening slaps you around your little face before the track dives into murky depths of dubstep bass drones, which are then layered with soaring Ananamaguchi style twiddles, glitches and distorted vocals, which remind me of those arcade games where you'd be controlling a fighter jet, shooting along at like a billion miles an hour, blowing the crap out someone. I think it was normally the Japanese. Like this:



"LA Lights" isn't as blisteringly furious as teenagers, but it's still a huge intense affair. It starts off with soulful synth chords and a bouncy, echoey riff, and then more and more sounds come in, starting with cascading drum rattles. It favours towering walls of bassy synths that wobble with elephantine dubstep swagger, which is layered with video game glitches and pings (I'm fairly sure that Super Mario Bros is in there somewhere). There are breaks where everything pans out and a huge sense of space is created by a glistening air of synths, before the drum beat paces it like a heart monitor heading towards death, and then the tremendous bass sounds thunder in, bigger than before, like Gandalf returning from the dead. Only this time, he'd riding that friggin' Balrog.

Click here to download these two track from Tympanogram, and click here for Hourglass Sea's MySpace.

He's got more on the way soon apparently, so I shall be keeping an eye! I don't care if this music changes the world. It's epic, awesomely fun electro. LET'S BOUNCE!!!

Can We Get Much Higher?

Andy Warhol (officially the most unnecessarily quoted man in history) is renowned for saying that "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes". It's been repeated ad infinitum that we very much live in Warhol's world now. Big Brother, X Factor, a barren wasteland in the Top 40, the internet and plenty of other 21st century phenomenons have seen to it that anyone can get themselves into the public eye for a brief period of time; whether it be some crazy woman who throws a cat in a bin or some little Canadian ponce who somehow becomes a popstar by flicking his hair around on Youtube.

So in this fame hungry culture in which we live, it's hard to really, truly find a genuine superstar. The kind of person who can casually bathe in gold with winged leopards from Sweden, whilst eating pureed panda cub through a diamond straw. A true pop diva or don. Those who immediately spring to mind in the category - Whitney Houston et al - are aging dinosaurs, washed up and aging, struggling to survive in a new world. You've only got to watch footage of Whitney's recent performances to know that. You can perhaps quote a few others - Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera - but come on. They've never REALLY gone that final mile have they? They're arguably good, very good, at what they do. Album sales are irrelevant - they've never gone truly stratospheric with the whole thing, have they? They typify CELEBRITY as we know it in the 21st century, but they're not really superstars.

If you know me relatively well or read my posts often (hi if I don't know you personally and you read this regularly. Thanks for coming!) then, if asked about my musical tastes, you'd probably be very quick to say "indie stuff", or something similar. Not massively shy of the mark I'll grant you, which is why a lot of people are slightly thrown when I say that I'm a massive fan of Lady GaGa.



GaGa is one of those people who everyone has an opinion on; from music industry insiders to brainless Capital FM listeners. The woman (or girl - she's only 24. TWENTY-FOUR. Bloody hell) is one of the only true superstars active in the world and the music industry right now. In the middle of last year she was in what Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys called "the imperial phase", in reference to his own band (I got this from a brilliant article by Tom Ewing on Pitchfork, which you can read here) It's basically a period where she can do whatever the hell she likes and it will be gold. In the above article, Tom Ewing mentions that imperial phases inevitably end, but does cite that he thinks Pet Shop Boys went on for about their first 20 singles. GaGa has only had 8, and is only one album proper into her career.

I wrote a post (available here) nearly a year ago on why I fell in love with her eventually, how I was struck with a genuine revelation about what she does.

The Fame Monster was revealed as 2010's biggest selling album worldwide, shifting 5.8 million copies. And she's still touring on The Monster Ball your which started in NOVEMBER 2009 and doesn't end until MAY 2011!

Guys my point is that I am convinced Lady GaGa is going to own this year. Like she did last year and the year before. She is a true superstar, and the world is craving that right now. Via the Lady GaGa persona she creates an artistic distance between herself and the world that is incredibly scarce in our over-Tweeted, over-reported and over-indulged 21st century. I love indie and DIY music and I'm sure this year will be awesome for it, though it will have trouble beating 2010. But a true pop monster/behemoth/leviathan is going to get even bigger this year. Her next album, entitled Born This Way, will be released on May 23rd and the world is already abuzz. She's said it's going to be "the anthem for [her] generation for the next decade". Now, that's a big statement to make - even from a woman who can apparently shoot sparks from her nipples at will and turn herself inside out
. But I can't help but believe her.

Like I've said, I love indie music and stuff that's outside the mainstream, intentionally or not. But I adore putting my trust in the hands of a giant like Lady GaGa. 2010 was a stunning year for independent music, even if the charts went to hell. But I think 2011 will be the year for superstars. It will be almost hilarious seeing GaGa in the charts, clobbering all these crappy little pretenders like Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Bruno Mars etc etc over the skull whilst mocking their whole pathetic, vacuous quest to be famous, no matter what the cost.

And I think there are some stunning lieutenants cantering towards us, ready to flank GaGa. Kanye West and Jay-Z are set to release a joint album entitled Watch the Throne in early March, with a single available on the 11th of January. It's hard to get bigger than that folks. Kanye is for one thing writing tunes that are more epic than Zeus playing the Star Wars theme in an epic electric guitar solo whilst being backed up by an orchestra featuring Darth Vader on the gong, Batman on the bassoon and Aslan on the triangle. As well as that, his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is - aside from being one of the greatest albums of all time - also possibly the greatest meditation on what it's like to be a superstar in the history of music. Kanye is definitely a superstar, albeit in quite a different style to GaGa. This will be his year too. He hasn't even announced any live shows to promote the album yet. It's already massive, and it, almost unbelievably, can only get bigger. He says it himself, as do all of his friends, in his latest single: "I'm a motherf*cking monster".



People like GaGa and Kanye - born to be superstars (born this way, get it? Hur hur) only come about once or twice in their generation. I hope both of them continue to flood the music industry with their incredible presences for decades to come. But I think 2011 will be a gargantuan year for both of them. Onwards and upwards. If possible!

The Mystery of Crystal Castles

In an age where some pasty looking kid whining out
an overwrought version of "Mad World" on the X Factor is considered the epitome of alternative, and where W H Smith is only one step away from stocking its front windows with titles such as Kerry Katona: My Golden Vagina, it can seem like a figure of genuine weirdness and mystery is nothing but a daydream. A far off fantasy, wandering a lonely desert, shiftless and unapproachable, Clint Eastwood style.

However, in the midst of the banality flooding our streets, there's one band who are truly the antithesis of that. Crystal Castles. Masters of glitchy, apocalyptic, self destructive 8-bit electro.



Now there are a million and one other noise/electro artists around nowadays. Why did Crystal Castles make such an impact a couple of years ago, an impact which has only grown over the past 12 months since their second album, Crystal Castles (II)?

Crystal Castles are one of the few prominent bands around at the moment who are genuinely mysterious, weird and just a wee bit scary. And it's the thing that makes them most alluring. We know so little about them. Their backgrounds are shrouded in mystery. We only know enough to know that we don't really know enough. The details garnered from interviews create a genuinely dark, almost traumatic back story.

Ethan Kath (28 and the musical brains behind the operation) has played drums in an anarchist-punk band, bass in a garage-metal band, and guitar in a GG Allin cover-band. He was once in a folk duo which ended tragically with the premature death of his partner. Outside of that, we know virtually nothing about this guy's life. He seems to go out of his way to remain unseen in the shadows onstage, and has rarely been photographed without some of his face obscured. He was apparently born on Christmas day though... We don't even know his real name. "Kath" comes from catheter, after Alice Glass decided to name him after "the most painful thing ever".

The aforementioned Alice (22, the self destructive front-woman/vocalist/lyricist) has revealed a few more details about her past - just a few mind - and they are in no way any more pleasant. She ran away from home at 14, changed her name to Vicki Vale after a Batman character, and lived in a squat full of punks and junkies who would "do really shitty things like heat up metal coat hangers and brand their skulls … ". She got involved in playing with noise punk bands and Ethan Kath saw her live (apparently she was higher than anybody he'd ever seen in his life) and snapped her up as the missing ingredient to his music.

That's a pretty big contrast to checking out Johnny Borrell's Wikipedia page which gives you a list of every single academic institution that had to regrettably suffer his sordid presence.

Now that darkness in Crystal Castles' past, that elusive backstory, brimming with shifting shadows, hearsay and Transatlantic whispers, is part of what has made this band so attractive and so inspiring to many. The darkness is real and authentic. It's clearly the bleeding product of the wounds of experience. They're no sodding White Lies. It's like what made Joy Division so enthralling (and still does). Ian Curtis' bleak and suicidal lyrics were raw and authentic, stemming from a man suffering epilepsy, a broken marriage and tidal waves of self loathing. Not to tastelessly mythologise it, but his tragic suicide in 1980 affirmed his lyrics, and makes the whole Joy Division legacy morbidly captivating. In the same way, the dark yet enigmatic past of Crystal Castles makes them possibly the most fascinating band of our time. That's not to somehow idolise or deify their tragic pasts though. I'm not claiming that a 14 year old girl living in a drug filled squat and a man losing his best friend and musical partner is in any way cool or rock and roll. And I'm not sure they'd want me to. But it is real. It is dark. It's part of who they are as a band. And it's a miracle we've garnered these details too. Ethan is renowned for being aloof and moody in interview, yet with a bizzarre tendency to swing suddenly into a mood of cheery politness (the Ian Curtis comparisons go on...) and Alice Glass, in all the interview I've come across, seems somewhat away with the fairies. Neither of them have mobile phones either.

These few tentative, tragic details are made curiously irrelevant however. Another thing that fuels the fire of Crystal Castles hype is the dehumanisation of Alice Glass. Now, that's a phrase that could reek of pseudo-critical pretension (and a phrase that has come up in conversation with at least one of my regular readers...) but let me explain.

Below are some pictures of Alice Glass:







Now in all of these pictures, and in nearly all other pictures you'll see of her, she looks dehumanised and unfeminine, I'm sure you'll agree. The choppy hair that she cuts herself, the mismatched clothing, the strung out facial expression, the pasty skin, posture like Bambi on heroin. She seems like a battered, patched and soiled rag doll. She looks like she doesn't care about anything, least of all herself. It's something you can trace straight back to Nirvana. Self loathing, or at least self disregard, means that Alice - the spastic, energetic face of the duo - is dehumanised, defeminised, for the sake of the band. It's backed up by the constant distortion of her vocals as well as the vast body of her lyrics.

And yet at the same time (NOTE: This could just be me coming out with something unnerving and strange, in which case, I apologise... sort of...) there's something quite sexual about the way Alice Glass presents herself. The choppy, unkempt, doll like facade is terrifyingly carnal, like some deranged school girl which, all jokes aside, is a pretty popular male sexual fantasy for one reason or another (if any of you start quoting Freud at me I will send you home crying to your mother... though that may not be the best option considering...) It's a strange duality how by dehumanising herself, tossing herself about violently in her live shows, surrendering her body to whatever violence might come upon it, she becomes a whirling, frenetic embodiment of unleashed energy, pent up in frustration for too long. That's another reason Crystal Castles have such an impact, especially with teenagers. They personify the way all teenagers wish they could release their energies, in the same way that Elvis, Sex Pistols, Nirvana and others have done before. And I think that's why her dehumanisation is so important. She becomes universal - despite still being a fascinating individual - and gets hoisted up by a bunch of sweaty, aggravated teenagers, like a bunch of indie Ewoks lifting up a drug addled, bizzarely sexy C3PO. I find her very attractive if I'm honest. Even if she mite bite me or whatever. I saw her performing last night at Brixton Academy and, judging from the conversation and heckling from the crowed, I certainly wasn't the only one there with a burgeoning crush. At one point when she was thrashing around on the floor, I distinctly saw the boy next to me look at her and just moan "Ohhhh!" In fact, I waited until afters seeing them to post this, as I wanted to see how the live experience affected my perception of the band. I can tell you that it's only confirmed and heightened everything I think about them, and also revealed that they are undoubtedly the best live act I've ever seen.

There's the obvious fact as well that the band create awesome music, but that's not what I've wanted to delve into. Crystal Castles are, like I said, probably the most fascinating band around at the moment (though Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All are giving them a run for their money). They are genuinely mysterious; a giant, pitch black thorn pulsating in culture's ribcage. They possess an authentic darkness that makes them unsettling yet compelling all at once, and the fact that the darkness is genuine means they don't come off like a pair of pretenders, annoying little screamo kids or as hilariously contrived as most metal bands nowadays. To question their authenticity is outright foolishness. It wouldn't take you too long looking at the band's website forum before you found a few extensive threads on Nazis and Satanism started by some of their wacko fans (not to typify all Crystal Castles fans like this however. But you know, it's still Satanic Nazis) The dehumanisation of Alice Glass, coupled with her violent and unconventional sexual appeal, create something genuinely strange and original. It is, as I've pointed, the latest evolution in the legacy of era defining acts such as Elvis, The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Nirvana etc. though I accept that our mysterious Canadian warlocks are not quite in the same stratosphere. Yet.

Crystal Castles - Not In Love from Video Marsh on Vimeo.

Elbow Reveal Album Art and Tracklisting

That there is the album cover for Elbow's forthcoming album Build a Rocket Boys! Don't know about you, but I'm rather upsettingly excited by the prospect. I did a post last week about the appearance of a videoed performance of new track "Lippy Kids" - which was the working title of the album, but is now the song from which the album draws it's title.

They've also released a tracklisting:

01 “Lippy Kids”
02 “The Birds”
03 “With Love”
04 “Neat Little Rows”
05 “Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl”
06 “The Night Will Always Win”
07 “High Ideals”
08 “The River”
09 “Open Arms”
10 “The Birds (Reprise)”
11 “Dear Friends”

They've said that the album is due to be about childhood and nostalgia. I think that's a wonderful thing considering the success these guys experienced in the wake of their last album, 2008's The Seldom Seen Kid. In my speculations and worries about where one of my favourite bands could go from there, I imagined them tragically stagnating, writing an album that's not really about anything and comes off as a bloated and dreary attempt to sound anthemic (which wouldn't help dispel all of the Coldplay comparisons that small minded destractors throw their way...) But it looks like success has made them cast their mind back fondly on where they've come from. "Lippy Kids" is incredibly sentimental, overflowing with fondness and nostalgia, and if the rest of the album adopts a similar stance it could provide an interesting counterpoint to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs from last year.

Also, the final track is titled "Dear Friends", and reminded me that when I saw Elbow at Wembley Arena in March 2009, they got the audience to sing a chorus they'd written and then recorded it. I could still sing it to you now, and it went like this:

"Dear friends, who are loved,
So much more than you'll ever know"

It was a lovely melody, and I hope they've kept the recording. I would LOVE to know I was part of a (hopefully brilliant) album by one of my favourite bands! Though I'm not too sure how I'd feel if that song went on to be used for the closing montage of some vile, parasitic reality TV show... but enough about that...

I just get really excited when little snippets and tasters of an album get revealed prior to its release - whether it's album art, tracklistings or songs. I'm well up for the new Elbow album, as I hope you are. They've got a host of live shows on the way and I'm hoping to catch them - see you there?

Resolutions and Reasons

Well a slightly belated Happy New Year to you! I hope you all indulged in sufficient merriment over the festive period. Now it's January. It's cold, wet, the middle of winter, none of us have any money because we bought presents and then spent all our Christmas money before New Year's Eve, radio DJs never seem to shut up about it being New Year and you've probably already failed to go jogging. Fun!

You're probably the same, but I've had an extremely mixed relationship with New Year's Resolutions. One year I'm for, the next I'm against. There's that constant battle between a scepticism of the concept in general, your own laziness and human inclination to fail, and your optimism, your hope, your determination. You know that, physically, you CAN do whatever it is you'd like to, so why don't you? It's odd.

This year, I've been continually toying with the idea. I wasn't sure where my sword was going to fall on the proverbial battle ground this year. Then I read a blog by a guy called Michael Hyatt. I follow him on Twitter, and he's the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, a Christian publishing company in the US. He is probably the best blogger I read. He is the master of crafting blog posts. They're frequent, succinct and to the point. Definitely follow him if you're into that sort of thing.

He wrote a post called "How To Make New Year's Resolutions Stick". If you want help keeping yours, read it. It's what persuaded me to make some resolutions this year and to treat them in the way I am.

Basically, he says you need to:
1. Make them specific, not generalised sentiments
2. Keep them few in number
3. Keep them SMART (see the blog post for the meaning of the acronym)
4. Write them down
4. Go public

Well, that's what I'm doing. I've made 5. Some are quite personal and just a bit irrelevant to this post right now but one is ALL about these posts.

MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION FOR 2011:
Write at least 2 blog posts a week between Monday 3rd of January 2011 and 31st December 2011.

There it is. It's out there. It's written down. And if you are a faithful reader of my blog I'd like you to pull me up on it (if you remember...) Since I started focussing specifically on music in this blog back in early October, I've pretty much averaged that, so I'm now making a strong point of it, determining myself.

At the start of a New Year, I'd also like to reassert the purpose of this blog, remind you (and myself) of why I write it.

1. It's cathartic. Writing this blog is, I guess, something I do because I want to vent my thoughts. Get them into a place where they're in front of me, manageable and subject to review.

2. To share with you. Yes you. As well as wanting to get my thoughts out for my own sake, I want to share them with other like minded or perhaps not so like minded people. I find it difficult sometimes to either find people who think and talk about music like I do, or to make enough time to talk to people who DO think and talk about it like I do. I really do hope that my thoughts on music and the music that I share/post enriches you in a very real, sincere way.

3. To practice. Practice may be the wrong word, but I want to be a music journalist. And I want to be as good at writing about music as possible, and to make myself as employable as possible one day - hopefully to a music publication that I love and respect. Writing this blog - and perhaps more importantly, writing it in a disciplined manner - will hopefully help me along my way.

So I hope that you do have a very happy 2011. A 2011 full of blessings and growth. Not necessarily happiness. I saw philosopher called Peter Vardy speak last year (woah, 2010 is now LAST YEAR!) who made a very vocal point of stating that the purpose of life is not for you to be comfy, content and happy. But I hope that in 365 days time, you will be more enriched and hopefully closer to God than you are now. God bless you this year, and may your resolutions be resolute.