Unfortunately The Loves are splitting, having recorded their 4th album ...Love You but, judging by this beguiling tale of heartbreak, it is going to be a rather ace way to end 10 years of music-making. Their infectious, fuzzy 60s inspired pop fuses with sad lyrics on this track to create a bittersweet experience that needs to be repeated over and over. Also check out the suitably cute video above - you'll either throw up or cry into your second-hand cardigan...
The Loves are doing a few more live shows before they split, culminating at the Lexington in London on February 13th with a gig featuring support from Comet Gains, The Lovely Eggs, The School and Pocketbooks. Full details of the dates can be found at www.fortunapop.com
From a homage to 1960s pop music to a homage of 1980s pop music. Holy Ghost caught the ear a couple of years back with Say My Name, possibly the best electro based song not made by MGMT or LCD Soundsytem in recent years. Now, after remixing the likes of Moby, MGMT, Phoenix and Cut Copy, the duo are putting together their debut release on DFA records, scheduled for April. On the basis of Do It Again, it could well be the party album of 2011.
BORDEAUXXX - MOTHER'S RUIN
As promised in Monday's Lend Them Your Ears, here's some glockenspiel! Smiths references, Los Campesinos-esque strings, lyrics ("It was a short-lived, long-term romance") and speak-y bits - there was always going to be a strong chance that I would enjoy this track. It's available to download, along with the rest of the 4-track EP (also entitled Mother's Ruin) from the band's Bandcamp page. If you want to hear Bordeauxxx's twee indie-pop stylings livethey're are playing dates around London and the South East in February and March - www.myspace.com/bordeauxxxmusic for more info.
Good day one and all, here is another Lend Them Your Ears, where I offer up a new act for your listening pleasure - this week, it's incredible purveyors of "highly emotive minimalist guitar pop music" - Low Duo.
As their name (and the above picture) suggests, Low Duo are a duo. In fact, they are a pair of brothers from Sheffield, if we're going to get all precise about it. Listening to their tracks, it is easy to forget that they were formed just 5 months ago - the sparse sound of their songs crackles with a quite remarkable depth of feeling that lures you in, gently but firmly.
Despite being such a young band Low Duo already have a 5 track EP out, available from http://lowduo.bandcamp.com/ for just £1, which is incredible value - what can you even get for a quid these days? One and a half Creme Eggs? 117 Nepalese Rupees? Anything in Poundland? Needless to say, the EP, entitled The EP of Hope and Despair, offers much better value than all of theseand purchasing it could turn out to be one of the wisest things you do with your money all year. To give you a taster, the opening track It Was You and Me is available as a free download below.
All 5 tracks follow a similar template - a single voice over a single guitar or piano, singing songs of, yes, hope and despair which are equal parts romantic and dark ("some people will die, some people will fly to the moon" ). These songs get under your skin and creep up and down your spine, firmly lodging themselves somewhere deep inside you, their simplicity making them incredibly easy to get immersed in. It really is amazing how much Low Duo get out of such simple, stripped back arrangements - they leave you on the edge of your seat, genuinely touched, and there's so little going on musically that you really wonder how they do it. Maybe they're a pair of shamans, who knows. What I do know however is that this is truly brilliant music that you, yes you, should be listening to.
The band are already working on a follow up EP and have a slot supporting Sound of 2011 nominee Anna Calvi in February to look forward to, as well as other live dates over the next 2 months.
You can find more information at www.myspace.com/lowduo and http://www.facebook.com/lowduo
After the mash-ups of Girl Talk, the industrial goth of Silk Flowers and now the minimalist melancholy of Low Duo it feels like something is out of kilter around here but don't worry, I'm sure there will be something with some glockenspiel, ukulele and hand-clapping mentioned on this blog in the not too distant future...
Hello and welcome to what, hopefully, marks the beginning of a regularly scheduled This Does Not Make Me A Journalist in 2011 with 3-4-FREE every Thursday and Lend Them Your Ears every Monday.
Whilst the above link gives you access to the entire Girl Talk album All Day (you are spoilt you know...) it is Triple Double, the 11th track on the record, that I keep playing at the moment - 6 and a half minutes of mash-up madness featuring Phoenix, Ludacris, The Rolling Stones and Willow Smith, amongst others. It is utterly barmy but also great fun, which is an approach TDMMAJ likes very much.
Far from the chipper indie-pop I normally immerse myself in, this gothic, industrial, down in the mouth track from NYC's Silk Flowers caught me completely off-guard, as it turns out I really, really like it. There's a great deal going on in this song as Avarim Cohen's dark vocal is backed by some well-layered downbeat electro shenanigans. The band will be touring the USA and Canada in March.
JON DOTS - THE GREAT DICTATOR
And lastly, a fantastic track from Irish bedroom singer-songwriter-producer Jon Dots, The Great Dictator. Inspired by Charlie Chaplin's film of the same name, and promising to be the first of the artist's songs to be based on films, this is a catchy, twinkling shimmy of an electrio-indie track. Hopefully this guy will have a long career of making equalling interesting and listenable songs for our pleasure...
So there we go - 2 tracks and a whole album for you to enjoy! We'll be back on Monday for Lend Them Your Ears. Have a good weekend!
Here's the first Lend Them Your Ears of 2011 (which will now be going up every Monday evening), it features the absolutely wonderful Lail Arad, who was nice enough to do an interview with This Does Not Make Me this week. Here. We. Go...
Lail Arad is a fantastic London-based singer songwriter, whose wonderful, off-kilter poppy folk songs remind me of a mixture of Regina Spektor, Kimya Dawson, Feist and Lily Allen. She has a whole ton of tricks and ideas up those long, twisted sleeves you see in the picture above and they're all rather good, as demonstrated by her debut album, Someone New, which came out last year. Whether she's looking with wide eyed wonderment at the universe, exploring notions of identity or attempting to save a relationship, Lail does everything with a spark and such wit as to be instantly endearing and likeable.
As well as all this, her brilliant track Everyone Is Moving To Berlin is available as a free download from Soundcloud (see below), y'know, just in case you needed another reason to like her.
And as I say Lail was nice enough to answer some questions for this here blog, so let's see what she had to say...
TDNMMAJ: Firstly, why and how did you get started with making music?
LAIL ARAD: It's quite easy to re-write the past... If I look back now it's clear to me that I always loved singing when I was growing up, and I became quite good at writing (essays, emails..) as I got older... so to put the two together and start writing songs made a lot of sense. In reality it wasn't that thought out, it just sort of happened.
Who and what would you say are your main influences?
Sesame Street was a big deal for me. And Fawlty Towers - I knew every word of every episode by heart. Then Joni Mitchell got thrown into the mix somewhere along the line, and my first boyfriend introduced me to The Moldy Peaches... 'Feelin' Groovy' by Simon & Garfunkle epitomises by early adolescence and I was big into No Doubt for a while there. Good thing I got out alive.
Which musicians/bands are you really into at the moment? Are there any new acts you think we should be looking out for?
A Human and La Shark are doing a co-headline tour and double A-side release together soon. They're two of the hottest bands in London, I'm very excited about it.
But I'm still pretty stuck on The Band and Lou Reed and The Incredible String Band to be honest...
Many of your songs are great fun (your cover of Let's Talk About Sex for Indie Ghetto being a case in point), do you think that this is down to your general outlook on life and music or because of something else?
I suppose it is my general outlook... if we can find some humour or shared experience in all the crazy, scary, sad things that happen maybe we'll come out the other end. I never set out to write funny songs, but if you don't take life too seriously there's often a funny side. Or at least a sunny side.
You're signed to French label Notify Music, how did that happen and what are they like to work with?
It's a new independent label and I feel very lucky to be working with them. I met them and it rolled very organically. The industry is falling apart so fast, which makes it an exciting time for inventing new ways of doing things - and that we're doing!
And what was it like playing a show with Devendra Banhart?
I didn't exactly play a show with Devendra. I went to see his show a few years ago, as a punter, and somehow I ended up on stage singing a song I'd just written called Winter. It was amazing! And he's so cool for taking risks like that!
If you could invite 5 people, living or dead, round for dinner and to hang out with, who would they be?
Well I won't won't this on the living because there's always a slim chance of meeting anyone in an elevator one day, so I'll take this opportunity to invite some corpses..
Janis Joplin, Kurt Kobain, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Mama Cass
And what does the future hold for you? Any plans for festival appearances in 2011?
I'm starting to work with a band for the first time! We'll be playing some London shows and in March I'm on a great touring festival in France in called Les Femmes S'en Melent - they put together amazing line-ups of female artists! Think I'm going to Memphis, Tennessee for a folk festival in between too! My album is getting it's physical release soon.. should be an interesting year!
I'm sure it will be an interesting year for Lail, with her infectious, clever songs deserving everyone's attention and, indeed, your ears.
Lail is opening for Jeffrey Lewis and Peter Stampfel at The Windmill in Brixton on January 18th, which is now sold out. Lail resides in cyberspace at www.myspace.com/lailarad and her debut album, Someone New, is currently available as a digital release through iTunes and Amazon.
So, 2010, remember that? Those giddy days of snow and Chilean miners and the General Election? Well the depressing start to 2011 (I mean, seriously – Dick King-Smith, Pete Postlethwaite, Gerry Rafferty AND Mick Karn already?!) has had me casting a wistful eye back on last year and I, like every man and his dog, have compiled my list of the Top 10 albums of 2010. Here it is…
Honourable Mentions –
Firstly, a few albums that seriously impressed but didn’t quite make it into the Top 10, a polite round of applause please for…
Standard Fare – Noyelle Beat,
Meaursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry,
Everybody Was in the French Resistance… Now – Fixin’ The Charts Vol. 1,
The Divine Comedy – Bang Goes The Knighthood and
Antarctica Takes It! – Constellations.
And now onto the Top 10…
10. Kid Canaveral – Shouting At Wildlife (Straight To Video Records)
“Juicy chewy pop-kids to savour” is the ideal way of summing up Kid Canaveral. Too bad I didn’t come up with it myself. Still, Shouting At Wildlife is a great indie-pop record to jump around to and have a big smile about. It gets off to a corking start with Good Morning, followed by You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night and Left and Right and then… actually if I keep doing that you’ll just end up with the album’s tracklisting. Every song has it’s own personality but the album is still tied together by the way it gives a snapshot of the lifestyle of 20-somethings in 21st Century Britain. More proof that guitar music, if done right, is far from dead.
9. The School – Loveless Unbeliever (Elefant Records)
At Number 9 it’s an album with Phil Spector’s er.. spectre all over it – Loveless Unbeliever by The School. A wonderful throwback to 1960s girl groups, this album is sweet, bouncy and full of handclaps – i.e. right up my alley. Despite the uber dance-ability of the songs there is a melancholic undercurrent throughout a lot of the album that gives the record far more depth than you might get from it on first listen. The tunes and lead singer Liz’s soft, pretty voice gives the whole record an air of innocence that is ultimately incredibly endearing.
Well it took 3 years of patient waiting and the creation of his own record label to release it, but the debut album by Gideon Conn arrived in 2010 and well worth the wait it was too. From the opening seconds, where the groove and the audience are literally introduced to each other, New Bop Sounds makes it clear what it is all about – fun covered fun, coated with fun sauce and chopped fun. The album has a real spring in its step and, whilst later tracks such as I Thought I Knew Love and Inside slow things down a bit, it is the boisterous tracks of the first half such as Eccentric, Yes No Maybe and Mighty Lightning that will really leave their mark on you. Putting the ‘fun’ in ‘indie-dance-funk’ New Bop Sounds is an intricate album of pure class.
A late entry into my Top 10, this album arrived with me mere weeks before the end of 2010 and made an immediate impression, which is why I featured the band in Lend Them Your Ears. That review covers the album in proper depth but suffice to say the conclusion was something along the lines of – this is a brilliant album that does many things and throws them together into an incredibly listenable pot of madness. I want more from this band and I want it now, if not sooner!
(I can't seem to find any embeddable songs or videos from the album but if you go to Wartime Sweethearts' Myspace there are a couple of tracks there)
6. Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Secretly Canadian Records)
Pysch-folk with a distinctly poppy edge Odd Blood is more synthy, toe tapping fun from brilliant Brooklyn 5-piece Yeasayer. Taking in a wide range of lyrical inspirations including Joe Louis, Miami drug lords, Fox news and kissing a woman on a plane, the album at once feels experimental, yet accessible, which is no mean feat. In equal parts touching and rousing, Odd Blood is a real triumph and came from within a hair’s breadth of making it into the Top 5 of this list.
More 1960s girl group throwback now with The Like. More punchy compared to The School’s softer, fuzzier feyness, and both approaches most definitely have their merits. Release Me is broadly a concept album about the aftermath of a break up (First clue is the track 1 being entitled ‘Wishing He Was Dead’…). There is certainly a darker, more vicious streak running through this album than in Loveless Unbeliever that really gets under your skin and compels you to listen. Consistent quality, as well as big catchy singles like He’s Not A Boy, Release Me and Wishing He Was Dead means Release Me demands, and deserves, repeat listens.
4. Bark Bark Disco - Say Hello To Your Mum (Parasol Records)
www.barkbarkdisco.com
The most childishly named album in the top ten and also the cheapest – it is still available free from www.barkbarkdisco.com ! This is fantastic lo-fi indie-pop – catchy and cheeky, bouncy and vibrant and best of all it will put a big fat smile all over your mush. Half-Maltese, half-German, completely awesome Bark Bark Disco and their debut album are utterly wonderful. Amusing lyrics, genuine emotion and charm, there really is nothing to fault about this brilliant debut release from the two-piece.
3. Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin' (Fortuna Pop Records) www.allodarlin.com
Another female led indie-pop band, I know, I know. But Allo Darlin's eponymous debut album is just so brilliant that it can't be overlooked - yearning vocals, twinkling melodies, heartfelt lyrics and piles of ukulele - the band have got it all so right and created an indie-pop masterpiece. Sweet without being saccharine, emotional without being overly sentimental, it is a quite wonderful balancing act with sparkling moments of humour (most obvious in tracks such as Kiss Your Lips and Woody Allen).
2. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty Records) www.sufjan.com
Nearly to the top of the list and we find Sufjan Stevens near inevitably up towards the upper end of this chart. Eschewing his more traditional, if epic, indie soundscapes for a much more electronic sound was a bold move and one that Sufjan Stevens has managed to pull off with aplomb. Maintaining the humanity that always lays at the core of his work, however vast and ambitious, he jams it through synths, drum machines and electronic sound effects but in such a way as to retain the essence that has always made his work so appealing. Singles Too Much and I Walked stand out for their immediacy but, as ever with Sufjan Steven's work, Age of Adz is to be taken as a whole, when it becomes even greater than the sum of its parts.
1. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring (Wichita Records) www.loscampesinos.com
And so to the number album of 2010, in my humble opinion. I've never made any secret of my utter adoration of Los Campesinos! - they are one of my favourite bands ever and certainly my favourite band around at the moment (Pulp reformation notwithstanding). This is their 3rd or 2nd album (depending on your classification of We are Beautiful, We Are Doomed) and marks a maturation of their sound. What is remarkable about this is that it never means they lose any of the energy, enthusiasm or excitement that have always made them such an amazing band. The Sea Is A Good Place To Think About The Future is particularly epic and jaw-dropping but every single song on this record has something very special about it - whether it's the pure punch of There Are Listed Buildings or the tragi-comedy of Straight in at 101, Romance is Boring shows Los Campesinos! taking a bold step and standing up for what they want to do and how they want to evolve. And it works brilliantly - this is intelligent, human, spirited, endearing indie-pop at its finest and, for that reason, is my personal choice as the best album of 2010.
