Colin Meloy
Laura Gibson
Showbox at the Market, Seattle
A salutory lesson in why some acts become headliners and others stay support acts.
Twilight Sad
MakeModel
Eagleowl
Liquid Room, Edinburgh
Bottom of the bill eagleowl make interesting, dirty three influenced, post rock with guitar, violin and double bass. Probably the best band of the night for me, and the only one I managed to take a photo of.
MakeModel make shouty hyperactive 'guitars and keyboards' pop. Not my cup of tea at the best of times having a couple of really dislikeable front men really didn't help.
Twilight Sad were a different experience. They were trying for 'mystique' in terms of stage presence to go with their austere post-punk sound. That of course fell to pieces when they ran into technical difficulties and the lead singer started telling stories about accidently calling Stirling a toilet. Musically they were quite interesting, but sounded like they'd not quite managed to a have an original idea as of yet.
Neil Young
Pegi Young
Playhouse, Edinburgh
An epic near three hour, 24 track, show (not including the intermissions) by one of my all-time musical heroes in the perfect setting of Edinburgh's biggest theatre.
As for his wife, it was pleasant country rock with lashings of pedal steel.
Long List 2007
This is the longlist for my 2007 albums of the year.
I'm going to try and pick a top ten (or so) and do a write up for each album, but in the meantime here's the candidates (in order by album title):
Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Matthew Dear - Asa Breed
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Ask Forgiveness
The Besnard Lakes - Are The Dark Horse
Black Francis - Bluefinger
King Creosote - Bombshell
The National - Boxer
Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
Joe Henry - Civilians
Low - Drums and Guns
iLiKETRAiNS - Elegies To Lessons Learnt
Editors - An End Has A Start
Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Wheat - Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Octopus Project - Hello Avalanche
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Maria McKee - Late December
Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Elliott Smith - New Moon
Interpol - Our Love To Admire
Efterklang - Parades
Phosphorescent - Pride
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers
Wilco - sky Blue Sky
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Grant-Lee Phillips - Strangelet
Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
Jackie-O Motherfucker - Valley Of Fire
Mark Ronson - Version
Bjork - Volta
Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
Trances Arc - XOXOX
Added 6th January 2012
I never did write up a top ten for this year.
So for completeness sake here's a top ten with the benefit of hindsight.
- Radiohead - In Rainbows
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
- LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
- Wilco - sky Blue Sky
- Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks
- Low - Drums and Guns
- Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers
- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Ask Forgiveness
- Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall
- Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize
This book is not only a comprehensive account of Creation records but also manages to place everything in the context of the fortunes and transformations of the british record industry over the course of a couple of decades.
Alan McGee reportedly hates it, which is a good indication of just how close to the truth the author has managed to get. Indeed it is a deeply impressive piece of research before you even consider it's other merits.
It is authoritative and intelligent, thorough and thought-provoking. It's single great flaw is that reading another page on the breakdown of the relationships in The House of Love or another page on the umpteenth studio that My Bloody Valentine spent two hours in before Kevin Shields decided it wasn't good enough kills much of the momentum of the story and you can start to get bogged down bored with it and it can become a chore to get to the next interesting bit.
I think that you really have to be keen to know everything about Creation before even thinking about picking this one up. If you are you'll find that you couldn't wish for better overview.
Unknown Pleasures
Part of Continuum's 33 and 1/3 series of short books that examine recordings by beloved artists over the years.
This one looks at the rise of Joy Division at the making of their classic debut album, Unknown Pleasures.
Given the brevity of the book it cannot compete with works like "Touching From a Distance" or celebrate the myth to the extent that Twenty-Four Hour Party People did.
It's a basic, functional little volume.
It's worth picking up cheap if you particularly love Joy Division.
Maria McKee
Tom Baxter
Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh
Tom Baxter played an acoustic show supported by a guy with a violin. It was innocuous singer songwriter stuff. Guy's got a nice voice though.
Maria McKee, however, has an exceptional voice. An enormous talent who has somehow ended up on the musical margins with minimal sales and a determinedly cult audience despite outstanding critical acclaim. Perhaps it's just that the album that should have made her a superstar, Life Is Sweet, came out at the wrong time or
Our Band Could Be Your Life
The story of the American indie underground in the eighties as told through short biographies of some of the leading lights of the scene.
I really enjoyed at least half of these short bios, as some of the bands had fascinating interpersonal struggles, financial problems and made great music.
However, the author made some odd decisions. Your band is only indie if your records are recorded for an indie label who used only indie distribution? A pointless distinction if you ask me. If, as I suspect, he only did this to avoid covering REM for the millionth time, then why not just say that?
Why, also, decide to not cover the major label careers of the bands that he does write about beyond a brief sneery paragraph or two about how none of their records were as good once they took money from the big boys?
Why spend countless pages wittering on about the idealism of certain bands? Sure they had admirable politics, that's great, I want to read about the music too at some point though.
Maybe I'm too comfortably cynical about the music business as a whole but the whole concept of indie purity just seems silly to me nowadays. So I'm docking points for his pious devotion to his precious hardcore band's purity.
Otherwise highly recommended for those with an interest in 80's underground indie music.
A booklog
Recent Posts
Authors
Bands
Blogs
Boards
treefell
Recently Listened
- TV on the Radio – Golden Age
- The Shortwave Set – Repeat to Fade
- Pixies – Ain't That Pretty at All
- The xx – Intro
- Eliza Carthy – Psalm Of Life
