Something for the weekend

We all look forward to the weekend, right? And after five days of screen staring, strip lighting and decidedly below-par coffee who can blame us. Those last few hours of keyboard bashing can really feel like they last forever (no offence intended workmates). Well. Here are three of the very twinkliest indie pop records to ease us all through that difficult transition period between work and weekend. Nothing particularly new or challenging on the ears - just what the music doctor ordered for a Friday afternoon...

A very indie Christmas...

In a time when pop groups claiming to have the 'we can make Simon Cowell a lot of money' factor dominate the charts, it's easy to feel a bit cheated that Christmas no longer means a congregation of new festive themed songs. But fear not, the trend for covering old favourites and releasing original Christmas tracks seems to be on the up among folk and indie bands. Hurrah!

Unfortunately these songs will never be Christmas number one, so you do need to know where to look to get your Christmassy fix these days. I've pulled together six of the best from the last couple of years to get you feeling all festive again...

This year was brought to you by the letter B

Well, I can hardly believe it but somehow it’s the end of yet another year, and that means (among other, more important things) writing about a few of my favourite albums for my seriously neglected blog! Instead of last year’s rather lazy approach, I’ve actually put a bit of thought into selecting this year’s top three. It was tough though, because I think it’s been an amazing year for music. In fact, this should probably be a top 11, because the albums listed at the end of this post are also bloody brilliant.

Some of the albums have probably missed out on being in the top three simply because they were released later in the year. And it’s also telling, that the top three are all bands that I managed to catch live – perhaps if I’d seen some of the other bands with new releases this year I would have picked them. Anyway, this is a run through of my top three albums this year.

And weirdly, my favourite artists of this year all begin with the letter B…

v

Beirut – The Rip Tide

This whole album is just kind of magical, and despite its short length (I think the running time is just over 30 minutes) I could listen to it over and over again, and still enjoy it as much as I did on the first listen. I mean, I defy anyone not to crack a smile at some point during Santa Fe. And if, like me, you’re someone who’s borderline obsessed with musical instruments of various shapes and sizes, then this band will never disappoint you. Afterall, it’s not often you get to see a guy performing a sousaphone solo, but Zach Condon’s bandmate pulls it off.

Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind Of Fix

This was the soundtrack to my summer. Well, actually this was the soundtrack to my ‘summer holiday’… to Cornwall… in October. Me and eight or so friends packed our bags with boardgames, CDs and, in my case, a ukulele and left the big smoke for a beautiful house on the cliff’s edge in Port Isaac. We spent a week just hanging out and drinking (and eating, the boys even caught us some fish), but this album was often on in the background. The increasing and decreasing energy of the tracks mirrored our own (yeah, drink-induced) highs and lows... much like the ebb and flow of the tide outside the window.

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

This is an album that crept in as one of my favourite listens while I wasn’t really paying attention (I was probably busy avoiding haircuts, or wondering if flowery Doc Martens were acceptable for work). Plus, Bon Iver’s gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in October was one of the most emotional I’ve ever been to. The title of most emotional belongs to Blur at Glastonbury 2009. Just ask my friends – blubbering wreck doesn’t even cover it, I'm surprised they still speak to me. Anyway, the girls sitting in front of us back in October sobbed all the way through, and although I managed to keep it together, there is no denying the enchanting quality of Justin Vernon’s almost otherworldly music. The band is one of the tightest I’ve ever seen live too, and create sounds that can really transport the listener to another place. 

Special mentions:

Alexander – Alexander, Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues, Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials, Metronomy – The English Riviera, Other Lives – Tamer Animals, Primal Scream – Screamadelica 20^th Anniversary Edition, Slow Club – Paradise, The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

Live review - Bombay Bicycle Club, Brixton Academy, 19/10/11

Written for and published by the wonderful For Folk's Sake

Bombay Bicycle Club gave the crowd at Brixton a real treat, rattling through the best of their material from the last couple of years as seamlessly as a band that has been together for decades.

They opened with ‘Shuffle’ a track from new album A Different Kind of Fix, and immediately the energy was through the roof. ‘Your Eyes’, a standout from the album, was next and heralded the entrance of Lucy Rose (onstage for the second time that night after playing as support as well as band Dry The River). If, at this point, the crowd thought they were in for a ‘new stuff only’ type of gig, they were swiftly proved wrong.  Jack Steadman and his pals then embarked on ‘Dust On The Ground’ from first album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose. Given that this song is a quieter offering than many of the tracks on that album, the boys really rocked it on the night.

They revisited a lot of their much-loved older material throughout the set, even stopping to admit just before launching into the raucous ‘Open House’, “We haven’t played this for a couple of years.” This bit of communication was unusual in itself as the band barely stopped for breath between songs (which kept the energy rising relentlessly).  By the time we made a return to the most current album with ‘Leave It’ the crowd was well and truly warmed up. ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ got perhaps the biggest reaction of the night, indicating that a large proportion of the crowd were recent converts.

‘Always Like This’ was a true highlight and made us wonder whether the band hadn’t taken a (small) leaf out of Beirut’s book – the addition of some brass gave the track an almost Latin vibe.

Jack took to the stage alone for the first song of the encore and sang a beautiful, more than faintly Thom Yorke-tinged, version of ‘Still’ – the last track on ‘A Different Kind of Fix’. Just Steadman’s powerful yet vulnerable voice and the piano echoed through the Academy, bringing everyone down to earth a bit before ending on a storming version of ‘What If’. The contrast between these two tracks provided a great example of what Bombay Bicycle Club can do: in one instant write beautiful music that, at its best, rivals the likes of Radiohead, and in the next make a venue full of people jump around to what has become an indie rock standard.

EP Review - My Crooked Saint, To Kill A King

Written and published for The 405, here.

Having already made some small waves on the folk scene, thanks largely to their signing to legendary London label Communion, To Kill A King look set to make a name for themselves with their extremely competent EP called My Crooked Saint.

Hailing from Leeds the band did some early gigs at Communion and have since won praise from Zane Lowe among others. So what’s all the fuss about? Well we begin with ‘Bloody Shirt’ a stomping and upbeat tune that shows off the bands musicianship and the brooding voice of singer Ralph Pellymounter, which incidentally has got to be one of the best names I’ve heard in a while.

‘Wrecking Crew’ runs with Pellymounter’s moodier side and confirms this band have rock running through their veins as well as the folksier stuff, which have lead to the inevitable comparisons with Mumfords and Sons, Noah and the Whale etc.

Perhaps what makes To Kill A King stand out though is that they are keen not just to make a good song but to tell a story too. The band have talked about releasing four music videos to go with each of the tracks, where the same characters pop up and the narrative develops with each video. This approach goes some way to proving the thoughtfulness behind Pellymounter’s songwriting and how this band put songs together.

To Kill A King aren’t all doom and gloom though, ’We Used To Protest/Gamble’ is a joyous and multilayered number, the jangly piano really helping to lift this song to approaching anthemic territory. ‘Family’ is more stripped back but there’s still plenty of evidence of careful arranging and orchestration, perhaps why the Guardian dubbed the band’s music orch-folk.

To Kill A King have all the tools they need to carve out a name for themselves in the folk circuit as a band that offer little of what we know and like about the genre already, but with perhaps a little something extra.

Interview - Matthew Lawes

The BBC Music Video Festival kicks off this week and runs until October 1st. It's the only dedicated music video festival in the UK and specialises in promoting talented, up and coming filmmakers.

Matthew Lawes is one such filmmaker/ director, founder of City Sessions and all-round lovely man. His first film, a vibrant animated music video for Fyfe Dangerfield’s Faster Than The Setting Sun, is one of 30-odd shortlisted acts that will be shown on big BBC screens all around the country. IWAOS caught up with him to talk about the festival, his plans and the importance of live music.

Fyfe Dangerfield - Faster Than The Setting Sun by Matthew Lawes from BBC Music Video Festival on Vimeo.

How did you get involved in the music video festival?
Ages ago I read about it online and I wanted to do it because if you get selected they play the videos on these huge screens all across the UK, apparently they go out to 1000s of people. And I chose the Fyfe video because it was the first thing I ever did, it’s the most lof-fi and I thought it sort of represented what I'm about.

So how did making a video for Fyfe first come about?

I was starting to do animation in my bedroom because I wanted to get into film. I seemed to be listening to Fyfe’s song a lot, I had it on all the time and I was thinking it would be so great if I could do something for him but I wasn’t really thinking it could be a something that could actually happen. But then Fyfe was playing in Rough Trade East, just a solo show and I went up to him at the end of the show and showed his some stills that I’d just done and I asked, ‘Do you fancy maybe letting me make a video for you?’ And he went, ‘Yeah alright then!’

How did City Sessions start?

Well basically me and Joe [Bulmer, sound engineer], were looking a lot at how to get into film and we were wanting to focus on music, but more in a live sense and making it really raw. I bought all the equipment, just totally ruined my bank account and then we started filming – Kevin Tuffy, Marques Toliver, then Kit Downes at the Royal Festival Hall. Then Bea Kerlin came on board as producer and everything accelerated after that to where we are now.

City Sessions_Film Four_Kit Downes from City Sessions on Vimeo.

How did you get to film at the Festival Hall?

I got in touch with Kit, and he said they couldn’t really do anything acoustically outside of a gig so he asked if I wanted to do it at the Royal festival Hall. So we said yes, of course! So I’m sitting down on the side of the stage, crouching out of the way with my camera and I was trying to find the right song and then he kind of gave me this look so I went in and filmed it in all in one go. A lot of the sessions are really high pressure because the artists have got almost no time but that’s the other thing about what we’re trying to do with these music videos – it’s easy for the artist to do, we only get them to do one or maybe two takes and we choose the best take. The videos will only ever be as good as they are so and I’m just trying to work with the talent rather than hiding behind postproduction, mirrors and effects, all that kind of stuff.

City Session - Film Twenty - Rosey Chan from City Sessions on Vimeo.

What do you hope comes across from your work?

Well I want people to realise that it doesn’t have to be about going to film school and getting into film that way, I’m completely self-taught and I’m not saying that I completely know what I’m doing but I have learnt everything from scratch! It shouldn’t be about high production values it should be about the talent that’s there – not from me, from the musicians and I want to be able to film that. All these musicians are just amazing and as long as they do their thing, it doesn’t really matter.

City Sessions - Film Ten - Michael Kiwanuka from City Sessions on Vimeo.

Is there an ethos behind your films about supporting up and coming talent or is it just that you like them so you film them?

We really want to push those acts who are up and coming and it is such a buzz to catch someone who is just on their way up. It’s amazing. It’s not like we’ve found them or anything but if we can help in anyway and put them out there and help their careers… that’s just such a buzz. And we’re in a same sort of place as them because we’re starting out too. But we also like having a go with more established artists, I think the main thing is that they have to be good live – if they’re not good live, we don’t do it.

You've certainly worked with some great new talent, how does working with these acts come about?

I mean someone like Marques [Toliver], I actually saw him busking when we were getting started and, I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but he was basically busking for money for food because he was so broke. He was unsigned, I think he had just come over from America, and he was trying to make it. I saw him in the street and thought he was amazing. Fast forward three weeks when we did the session with him and he had been signed, he had been on Jools Holland and we just thought 'Wow!' So with all these acts, it’s just great if we can give them a platform. There are lot of other session websites and you know, you can look at it like we’re all competing but I think we’re all just promoting good music, which is so important.

City Sessions_Film Three_Marques Toliver from City Sessions on Vimeo.

And your films were shown at Latitude this year too?

We were selected to showcase a selection of our videos at the Festival by Tania Harrison who runs the Film & Music Arena at the Festival. We compiled a half hour edit with films including Michael Kiwanuka, Goldheart Assembly and The Turbans. It was shown to 500-odd people, which was such a buzz. We would love to do more festival slots in the future.

How do you come up with locations?

Well sometimes it’s not really up to us. Like when we filmed We Are Scientists we caught them just on the back of their tour so we filmed them in their dressing room because it was literally the only place they could do it, which was a bit of a shame because really I like to do something different, do it on a boat, for example! Location-wise I just really want to explore – there are so many amazing locations in London and people are so generous, there is no money changing hands in any of this at all. So we’ve had churches, where they’ve given it to us for two hours and then the Royal Festival Hall. The thing is people are so nice and supportive of the whole thing.

City Sessions - Film Seven - We Are Scientists from City Sessions on Vimeo.


And now you’re expanding City Sessions...

We do a monthly night at the Wheelbarrow in Camden but we are also going to do some residencies with Goldheart Assembly so there’s four nights at the end of October and beginning of November at the Spice of Life in Leicester Square. Joe is actually building a studio at the moment which will be the City Session studio and on the back of that we really want to start a record label. It’s really about promoting live music, that’s the real buzz for us and people seem to enjoy it.

Any tips on a band that we are likely to be hearing about soon?

There’s a band called Other Lives who we did recently who are going to be massive, I just think they are absolutely amazing. Just after we filmed them they confirmed a support slot for Bon Iver so they are just going to be huge. They’ve got a real Fleet Foxes/ My Morning Jacket appeal to them and it’s all stripped back.

City Sessions - Film Seventeen - Fishing from City Sessions on Vimeo.

So what does the future hold for you?

Well I'm working on some scripts and film music but with City Sessions there’s a couple of things we want to do. I really want to be making a music video a week just to keep really pushing that and learn as much as I can. And we’re looking to getting it out there to more people, widening the appeal and doing a hell of a lot more bands, playing all different kinds of music. I hope we are going to do a City Sessions roadtrip in the States and get a van and a projector and get round some events. And the studio with Joe and record label. And of course, film as much and show off as many amazing artists as possible. Its’really good getting to work with so many amazing people – I have to pinch myself sometimes.


Keep an eye out for the big screens all over the country that will be showing Matthew's and other new and talented filmmaker's videos over the next couple of weeks and don't forget to visit City Sessions for more live music videos.

3 new bands making 'old' music

If you've visited IWAOS before you might know I like new music and that I love tracking down new bands but what you may not know about me is that I also love old music. In fact nothing makes me happier than if Shirley Ellis' 'The Clapping Song' comes on while I'm on the dance floor. So in some ways this is a post on two of my favourite things - new bands who make 'old' music. One I have followed for a while and two are brand new to me but all of them have blown me away with their new take on an 'old' sound.

First up is the Allah-las, who must be pretty new as they only have two songs out, this one 'Catamaran' and the equally jangly and brilliant 'Long Journey'. According to one of my favourite music blogs Aquarium Drunkard (the reading of which makes me want to move to California immediately) the Allah-las are resident band at the Echo club in San Francisco where they play a free gig every month - it's just the getting there that will set me back then.

Then a band which I have sort of tried to follow for ages. I say tried to because every time I go to check them out they've changed their name. I think at this stage they were called Jack Lewis and the Cutoffs but now they're named Jack Lewis and Awkward Enemy. Anyway, I love the low-fi sound of this track 'Shadow Party' and the video is cool too.

And finally to Nick Waterhouse who I get the impression is something of a dude in his hometown of San Francisco, and with a soul sound like this you wouldn't expect anything less.

It's got me thinking that soul and rhythm and blues could well be on the up, perhaps the genre might even enjoy a massive revival a la folk music. American acts like Janelle Monae and Aloe Blacc have already made an impression on the charts in the UK and drew impressive crowds at Glastonbury. But if not I'll have to continue tracking down retro nights and the best of the new 'old' stuff coming out of the USA's west coast.