New website

Like most of the world, I am migrating onto a new website. My new one is  catshoe.org which should be up (in workshop mode) by the time you read this


I will leave this here as an archive. Google Blogger has been fun and served me well for the past four and a half years, but Wordpress has won me over

Still Corners @ Cargo 8th Feb 2012

The colourful fog swirling behind Leon Dufficy's head is a good metaphor for Still Corners' sound. Warm fuzziness does nothing to take away from the stride of Leon's guitar in this particular mix, but it wouldn't be fair to call them a guitar band. In point of fact, the creative genius of this band is shared between two people, and one of them is hidden away at the back behind the drum kit. No denigration of drummers intended, but it's when you spot that Greg Hughes has keys and electronics back there too, a bit like the engineer's galley on a warplane, that you might take a bit more notice of this back seat driver.

Wild Flag - Live review and video

I saw Wild Flag cold on Thursday. By which I mean I hadn't heard a word of them before the gig. At least I thought that was the case, but Romance sounded way familiar.

You can read the review HERE and it's fair to say I was pretty impressed even if it's hard to get some sort of emotional connection first time out. It's like the first time you ever smoke a blunt. Persistence is everything in this regard.

I didn't want to blather on about it in GIITTV, but I was well impressed. If these were guys in their early / mid forties that hadn't played in a band in five years, this kind of success (cult but dedicated) would be impressive. Enough said

Is/Is Hate Smile video

This is apparently Hate Smile, being performed on college radio recently. I say apparently because it is quite different in pace, and even in overall sound, to the single version. It can't all be down to having a new tub thumper. Whatever, it's a fine song and it'll tide me over while the girls (new drummer and all) are right now making a video for a new single, to be called 'Fire'

Live on Radio K: IS/IS from Radio K on Vimeo.

Samantha Crain - Santa Fe

This year I have mainly eschewed all this 'lists' business. However, there have been moments that have been truly extraordinary. One of those was hearing this track. It's a great album - I reviewed it HERE. However, Santa Fe is simply one of the best songs I have heard all year. Samantha has a great voice, I'm a sucker for bluegrass banjo at the best of times, but that call and response vocal is simply heart stopping

"Santa Fe" by Samantha Crain from Ramseur Records on Vimeo.

The Indelicates; Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou; Nia; DIGS Project Colwyn Bay 17 Dec 2011

The Saturday before Christmas, and we're braving a snowstorm to get to the proverbial seaside town that they forgot to shut down. Actually that's unfair of me, the name of the town is Colwyn Bay, and it's doing a huge amount to pull itself up by its boot straps. Central to that effort are the guys at DIGS Project, bringing acts of surprising quality to the town, not to mention cakes to a gig which is always good. Tonight's headliners The Indelicates are a big deal, and we are almost as excited about Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou.

Emily Haines - "When we all met we just had this idea of 'let’s f*** things up', in a friendly way. A friendly 'F*** you'." - interview repost

This is a repost of an interview I did for Altsounds way back in Dec 2009. It was face to face, backstage in Edinburgh, and at the time I was hugely stoked. I still am in fact, I had only recently started writing and had no idea that I was going to do any more than go to a gig. At about 4pm we were out shopping and had a phone call to ask if we could get to the venue for 6pm to interview Metric. Could I? Oh yes indeed. The amazing thing is that the interview took off - at a time when a review might get a few hundred page views, this had tens of thousands -  86,000 to date on the original site.  So here it is for old time's sake. Scroll to the end too - there's a video from the night

Mike Peters, Joe D'Urso, James Maddock, Israel Nash Gripka, Willie Nile - Light Of Day Concert 10 Dec 2011

A charity gig in a church hall you say? Not normally the stuff of heart stopping excitement. In this case however, smaller-than-small-town Colwyn Bay is somehow there on a list of international tour dates with venues from Canada, Italy and the UK before heading back over the pond to finish up in Asbury Park. The line-up is Mike Peters, Joe D'Urso, James Maddock, Israel Nash Gripka and regular incumbent on these gigs, Willie Nile.

Greta Svabo Bech / Deadmau5 - Millbank Tower

This is not an event I was at, what can I say. I was gutted when I found out about this after the event. Until a couple of months ago I lived mere metres from this rooftop, if you happen to be into tight-rope walking. This is one immense track. Greta Svabo Bech is more usually to be found with Picture Book but we'll forgive her flirting with that Deadmau5 chappy for the night if it produces something that can be this chillingly beautiful and grime laden at the same time. A laser show on the tower? Fuck I simply can't believe I wasn't there. Watch the vid, and then do yourself a favour, check out her proper band http://www.picturebookmusic.com/  I'm not drawn to all this 'end of year' and 'tips for....' rubbish, but trust me, you shall indubitably be hearing more of Greta and Picture Book, and not just from me

Lana Del Ray - the official official version of Born To Die

Well I quite liked that looped video, but here is the official version of the tape for Born To Die - rushed out apparently because a dodgy version had been leaked. So there ya go. Sorry to go on about Lana, but in my mind, she is breaking news

Lana Del Ray - both versions of new single Born To Die

Another blogger writes more words about LDR..."This is just mesmeric. More produced. Less immediate (not that the last one was exactly pop-obvious). Very slightly emasculated, as she now offers to "kiss" as opposed to "fuck you hard in the pouring rain". She has at least two voices, one all sliding away and knowing, the other sugar-girl-twee. This came from the record company entitled 'official video' but is captioned 'official video coming soon'. What's that? I think there will be another version along shortly with tame wild beasts or something, but this version works brilliantly. Lana looks sulky and sultry and defiant as her eyes either lazily close or POP OPEN in some sort of infinite loop

 It certainly answers the question about Video Games - you know, the obvious one about whether there'd be any more where that came from"......

Scary Mansion - Take Me To The Night

I utterly loved Scary Mansion's last album Make Me Cry. It was one of a running list of around three at the time that were my constant go-to records when anything else just wouldn't satisfy. Scary Mansion is essentially Leah Hayes, from New York. Leah's voice envelopes your ears and psyche. Although she has a brilliant voice whatever the circumstances, on this particular track she uses autotune as an art form, to the extent that it's almost paradoxical how it abstracts the sound out through the other side of the 'perfect note' for which autotune was intended, and out into some sort of flattened out distortion. Anyway, the great news is this brand new track Take Me To The Night, which we are promised is the pre-cursor to more. It's very chilled, and very lovely, the wait has been worthwhile

Take Me To The Night by scary mansion

If you've got a hankering for more, check out this LINK. This is from January this year, and is a compelling collaboration with Darwin Deez.

Still Corners - stream entire album 'Creatures Of An Hour'

It appears I'm in exploring mood tonight. It turns out I'm behind the curve with Still Corners, they've even been the Guardian's band of the day, but hell, let's not make that a reason to ignore them. I got to them via a recommendation from our friend Josh, a man who is on the money more often than he isn't

Yeah, yeah, more of the shimmery stuff with the obligatory lo-fi whatever. But actually, forgive them their praxis, and even that ever-so-reminiscent delay-reverb drum beat at the start of 'Endless Summer', this whole thing is really rather excellent. I'm not going there with the 'more indie than thou' genre shit on this one. Like the guy on the game show - "say what you see". What I see, or rather hear, here are breathy dreamy vocals that come straight out of the dry ice machine, mere snippets (in amongst the more obvious bits) of drum sound that Stephen Morris would have been proud of... damn it, I give up on describing the components. The whole, the overall, is that we are left drifting on some long dream journey. Ever seen that painting of Ophelia by Millais ? That's where we are with this. Apart from where it gets louder and sounds like the inside of some gentle machine. Enjoy this video trailer, then scroll down to listen to the whole album.

Abi Wade - And Blood And Air EP

Abi Wade's debut EP And Blood And Air is both rather great and most unusual. Playing something akin to modern post-folk with a cello may not be completely unique - if you need evidence, check out pre-cursors like the equally excellent and very well established Martin and Kimberlee McCarrick. What is pretty singular though is Abi's playing style, strings more likely to be plucked than bowed. It's percussive too, the cello strings at times being played with a drummer's 'beater'. Done wrong it could all be a bit Spinal Tap; done right, as it is here, it's wonderfully touched by magic. The songs are melodic, lilting and lovely. She's got a killer voice for good measure, think that sort of lazy slide that might have made you love Beth Orton. If Abi was instead a doyen of piano or jumbo acoustic, it would still be good, but possibly no more than that.

BOY FRIEND - Egyptian Wrinkle

I'm starting to get both antsy and angsty. I would usually eschew all that 'best of' business, that's not it.... it's more that I find that I have been listening far too much to the same old, comfort in the familiar. If you want evidence, yesterday I officially held my own Saint Etienne night. There's nothing wrong with that, but it really is time that I found my wanderlust. I've had far too many notes in my phone listed under 'must listen too'. There is some crap about, which is actually bloody brilliant because for every rolled-in-glitter piece of poo there are excellent and shining discoveries like Boy Friend.

Is/Is - Hate Smile

I so like this lot. I thought their last single was risking being a bit too heavy for the sake of heavy, but 'Hate Smile' is completely on the money from the 2 Sarahs and what appears to be a lazy-susan array of drummers. Blissed out, grunge, Ms Rose's vocals floating in the wash. I was about to say "what's not to like" but as an advertising line that truly sucks, so instead try "There is everything to like" 

I just wish that either they would bring it over here, or that I could make one of their US dates coincide with one of our trips over there.

   

Dum Dum Girls / Veronica Falls / Novella Wrexham 16 Nov 2011

Written for Sonic Shocks

I was expecting big things from two of the bands and had never heard of the third. In the event all 3 were excellent tonight at Wrexham's Central Station.

Wye Oak - Holy Holy video

I've been kinda missing Wye Oak, so as a reminder, here is the lovely video for Holy Holy. Beautiful video too. 

Wye Oak - Holy Holy from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Dogbones - Cargo London - 11 Nov 2011

Dogbones are one compelling live prospect. Enough that having seen them just the once before, a matter of weeks ago, I found myself taking a day off and spending 12 hours travelling to see a 53 minute set, considering it a very decent return on investment.

FOE - preview of January's new single 'Cold Hard Rock'

Gosh. A very early listen to a new single from FOE that will be out in January. I like it lots. It's still the skewed and twisted them, but compared to say 'Tyrant Song' or 'Genie' it's....dare I say it....almost a bit more mainstream? And, there is news on the album Bad Dream Hotline - which will be out 16.01.12 Whoopee ! Yay ! Run around the room a bit !

Lana Del Rey - Live Video Games in Manchester

We have all seen and heard Video Games by now, possibly the best single song I have heard performed in the last year. I was desperate to get to this gig and couldn't, even with shall we say 'certain connections' it wasn't going to be, and I'm still sad. So I was grateful to see this video posted, which shows Lana can indeed do it live, and that far from being some manufactured thing, she is an affecting and charming performer. The sound quality is only about 80%, but watch right till the end, it's worth it

On the Verge With The Joy Formidable – Fall US 2011 Tour, By Peter Dysart

So much has already been written about The Joy Formidable that its nearly cliché to discuss the band’s size, sound, attitude, relationships, or comment on all the attention they’ve recently been paid by other musicians, the press, or the late night show circuit in America.

However, one common theme that keeps being bandied about is that this is a band on the verge of something big. Fat lot of news that is, and it’s only partial correct. Face it, The Joy Formidable have been big for some time, and none more so than for their fans.

KEEP READING HERE  - it's an excellent piece of writing from friends in the US

EMA / Mz’Gorjis - stream brand new track Angelo

I'm usually a teensy bit eclectic about what 'news' I will post on here (for instance check out the year old 'news' on my previous post) - but this just completely and utterly kicks. I loved EMA when I saw her. If she was going to pick a rapper it sure was NOT going to be some crotch grabbing loser. The rapper in question is Mz’Gorjis of Oakland, CA’s Platnum Platnum Glam Squad. STREAM the track here


  EMA - Angelo by souterraintransmissions

Dogbones show their arses to the world (well, show their pants to Colwyn Bay)

Well there's a bit of a turn-up. I caught my first Dogbones set, and I promise you it wont be my last. They were completely and utterly knockout on Friday in Colwyn Bay.

 This unlikely setting is all due to   http://digsproject.wordpress.com/ who deserve utmost kudos for getting off their arses and doing something about the music scene on the North Wales Coast. It was made all the better by also having the "was fantastic and now is even more fantastic" FOE on the bill too

My review IS RIGHT HERE  

The Joy Formidable - backstage interview / gig review / photos from Manchester

Right then - Joy Formidable time. We got our asses over to the show at Manchester on Oct 15 - proof of the pudding in the photo set below.

We were lucky enough to witness a chunk of the sound check, then were taken upstairs to have an excellent interview with Ritzy and Rhyd, while Matt bounced up like Tigger for the photo, and all three wrote nice birthday dedications on a 12" for Rose. She and Matt have a shared fascination for cheese (don't worry Laura, that's as far as it goes)

The Kills - Future Starts Slow - audience video

What a great audience video - The Kills, shot from the crowd at Brighton. The song is Future Starts Slow. I hope the person with the camera isn't the guy I nearly had a fight with at the Kills' Heaven gig, haha.  This video is such class that The Kills have posted it themselves on their FB page - that's some accolade


Credit - Lanx64, whoever you are!

Catherine AD - Communion

Catherine AD's measured voice is adorned with no more than roiling piano for large stretches of this seven track mini-album. What other accompaniment remains could be fairly termed as light orchestral flourishes - strings bowed and plucked, the lightest touch of xylophone. This is very much the stripped back and reflective piece, without even the slight sheen of pop production evident on her 2009 Carry Your Heart E.P. That said, it's a thing of charm and beauty with strong and emotive song writing, none more so than on opening track 'Waiting To Breathe'.

Later in the album, despite being a surprise Gaga cover, 'Telephone' shows Catherine's Maria Muldaur-like tendency to slur and slide her S's into Z's, and to use her voice as an instrument in its own right.  So much does this record have the air of the sound-track for some 50's romantic epic that it is an almost literal shock to realise that Catherine is singing about such modernities as texting. In other parts the music is so well mannered, so suited to a Victorian drawing room, that it is an interesting counter-point to hear Anglo-Saxon swearing swimming to the top of the mix, sure that she'll "fuck it up again". It's no huge surprise to hear that it was recorded in a single day with a live string section; it has that organic analogue feel. It's too intelligent to be populist, demands attentive listening but marvelously repays the effort. Fuck it up is the one thing she hasn't done. If it's any sort of indication, the record isn't out for a week or so, but is already sold out in its physical manifestation; for the moment it's iTunes or nothing. 

Written for www.TheMusicFix.co.uk

The Joy Formidable - Stream 'The Big More EP'

The accompaniments of fame just keep rolling in for The Joy Formidable. They have just played such a well thought out game. The thing that really, I mean REALLY blows me away is that I have played this track - Whirring - so many times, and indeed seen it performed live so many times, and yet it stays so immediate and fresh. Tracks that do that are amazingly few and far between. Off the top of my head, what else can you say that about? Maybe  Maggie May by the Faces, or one or two Smiths songs can remain untarnished by familiarity in the way that this does....

....AND KEEP SCROLLING, YOU CAN STREAM THE WHOLE OF THE NEW 'BIG MORE' EP BELOW THE VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The Big More EP by thejoyformidable

Zola Jesus - Vessel

Gosh - the album is brilliant, Nika's voice is full-on loaded with emotion as well as being mighty powerful. It is quite possible to imagine her wreaking the effects portrayed in the video. In fact, just a tiny bit of that is actually the case, the water vibration patterns are her voice. I cannot wait to see her in Liverpool on 25th November

 

Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes [official video]

Having recently reviewed their absolutely excellent new album HERE it seems a good idea to also post the new video. I really like the new album, it's on rotation in my life just now and just keeps getting better

Creatures Of Love - Barbatos [video]

Hmmmm - - here is an artistic and distinctly creepy video by Creatures Of Love. They're about to go on tour supporting The Joy Formidable in the UK, and are releasing this on a 7" CD, whatever that might be. I like what they do, need to find out more. I think I've almost been avoiding them simply because they share the same management with TJF and it seemed a trifle too 'fan-boy' but they are well worth checking out. That's almost an 80's sheen to their music, and I feel grubby after watching the video !!

 

Jessie J - Who You Are [video]

Sadly this is nothing like "Do It Like A Dude". It's pleasant enough standard R&B fare with a hint of 'self-empowerment' Oh well, wait for the next one I suppose.   I've posted this because I was so hugely enthusiastic when Jessie first appeared, and said so, so I'm entitled to say that this smacks of corporate blandness

 

Leo Leoson

I know very little about this guy - from Skåne Sweden and a recommendation from my friend Peter in Chicago. Eeh 'eck what a small world it is these days!   I have to say it's pretty understated and charming, something right for the weekend heatwave we are enjoying here in Britain just now




Update - Strange to relate, this has been one of the most clicked pages on my blog since I posted it. For me, it has remained as an interlude, not been one of those sleeping monsters that you realise were there all along six months later. It's still a nice space though, an interstice in the day's events, and I think I need to find out more about Leo Leoson.  Here is the video that 'anonymous' recommends in the comments on this post


The Frame - Giorgio Armani - Frames of Life from The Facehunter Show on Vimeo.

Lykke Li - Sadness Is A Blessing video

This is just so beautiful. The restaurant could only be in a nordic country, the tristesse is beautifully expressed, and the fact that Lykke Li's dress is reminiscent of a straight jacket just adds to the poignancy of the whole affair. To be on show to the world and slowly crumbling till strangers end up cheek by jowl with your intimate memories at the end of an affair

Zola Jesus - Conatus [Souterrain Transmissions] - 26 Sept 2011

After being the blogger's delight at the end of last year, Zola Jesus is back. The 2010 album, Stridulum II, was a fine piece in a niche sort of way, even if it's wailing risked getting caught up in the tail end of the witch house storm in a teacup. 

The new record, Conatus, represents that thing so beloved of old style communist regimes, the 'great leap forward'. It had all gone a bit quiet in Camp Zola, then all of a sudden there was a fizz and a buzz from the festival circuit that great things were afoot, and the spies weren't wrong. 

The central core, the gravitational pull of the record, is that voice, grown large in confidence. It's paradoxically fitting that something so massive should come from this 4'11", tiny framed and previously insular figure. But the thing that makes this special is what revolves in the orbit of Nika's voice. Yes, it's fair to call it goth-inflected, but in the 11 tracks are lush harmonies and piano pieces to go alongside the dry-ice drenched melodrama. As well as launching the album, Souterrain are about to release a second single from it - 'Seekir' - which improbably and satisfyingly segues a tribal chant across into a disco beat. The whole thing has the sort of echoing emotional space that can be best described as walking across a darkened and dusty Hollywood sound stage, only to  somehow and mysteriously find yourself in the real desert. If I had to give it a lazy phrase of description, it might be something like 'Florence fronting the XX'. I've had this on heavy rotation for a week now and it's the gift that keeps on giving, getting better and revealing more each time round. 

Zola Jesus is the solo project of Nika Roza Danilova. There is a live band involved, but it's been all Nika's vision from back when she was churning this out from her bedroom in the mid-west. She's playing a sprinkling of U.K. dates in November, and if you want to catch them live, I'd get your skates on - at the album launch show in London this week it's so over-subscribed that even the usual press credentials won't get you in. 

.....and here to listen to right now is 'Seekir'....

  Zola Jesus - Seekir by souterraintransmissions

FOE @ Central Station, Wrexham 20 Sept 2011

FOE is that classic modern internet fairy story, producing music in her bedroom and putting material out on MySpace, only to be have record companies sniffing round post-haste and be signed with immediate effect. And not by some tiny indie label, but by no less than Vertigo. Rewind even further, and FOE, aka Hannah Clark, was your average girl-singer-songwriter-with-acoustic-guitar. She decided that wasn't exactly how she wanted to conquer the world so came home from the second hand shop with a £40 keyboard and turned her hand to some crunch-rhythm skewed childs-life view of pop music, tales of clowns in g-strings and kids pissing in the playground. Not quite a solo effort, this was in conjunction with producer (and musical other half) Entrepreneurs who has also recently worked with Ghostpoet, the picture makes sense as quickly as it becomes more complex. Whatever, the immediate interest was understandable, coming not only from Mercury but also appearances on 6 Music, not to mention Shirley Manson of Garbage fame who bigged FOE up all over facebook. This sudden blast at such an early point though meant that by FOE's own admission things were slightly back to front - all this attention and she'd hardly played a gig. Which she's putting to rights, paying her dues, treading the boards up and down the country, leading to this Tuesday night gig in Wrexham. Central Station has, over the past few years, had a nose for the right bands at an early stage, and the place is looking a tad rejuvenated with a sound system upgrade, a new stage set up and more on the way, so it was a worthy setting. Entrepreneurs, aka Adam M Crisp is part of the live band, a four piece if you count FOE. From the B of the bang they dive into effect heavy distortion, in glorious incongruence to Hannah's smart two piece suit and to her open-voweled well-spoken delivery. It's fascinating, even more so live than on the EP and 2 singles she's so far put out. Considering her relative lack of live experience, she is transformed from the polite girl who we spotted nipping out to watch the support, to someone who owns the stage. The sound lopes along with massive drive and grind, compelling as her voice ghosts in and out the dance infused storm. For a rainy Tuesday night it's glorious, the highpoints being 'Genie In Coke Can', her homage to 'millions in marketing pop star trash' and 'Tyrant Song' - the one that got Shirley Manson all perked up. There's no encore, it's short and sharp, no filler, and afterwards Hannah is all charm, happy to chat about the mundanities of life on the road, having hotel dinners bought for them, ready for tomorrow's gig at Factory in Manchester.

FOE @ Central Station, Wrexham