Se muestran los artículos pertenecientes a Enero de 2007.
01/01/2007
Diez años de Tangents
El mejor ezine de la red cumple 10 años de existencia. Felicidades. Aquí os dejo con el artículo que lo inaguró. Eso si, a día de hoy Alistair Fitchett reconoce que “Reading it back now, I feel some words of apology are needed to people like Bob Stanley, Matt and Clair of Sarah records, Everett and Stephen Pastel. I guess I was just feeling exceptionally grumpy that day. Reading it back too I’m struck by how there was still the need to be a kind of apologist / evangelist for the Web back in those days. It’s inconceivable now of course.”
Do You Believe In Magic?
A colleague in school asked me a while back why I was still writing/making fanzines. Why I was still writing about Pop culture, if not simply Pop music, at age thirty, when perhaps I ought to be spending my money more wisely on learning to drive, getting a car and a bigger house. Having a family. That kind of thing. And I admit that I couldn't answer them straight out with anything but a sigh that said 'oh you'd never understand', or 'you sound like my mother when I was twenty'. And I admit that it's difficult to express it in any sort of considered manner here, which is why I slip back into teenaged rhetoric with the following 'explanation'... "Because I still believe in the power of words, of Art, to change the direction of people's lives. I still believe that it's the words and the artefacts which give the words life which instil people with a sense of the possible AND the improbable. I still believe that communicating your ideas, dreams, that whole EXCITEMENT AT BEING ALIVE is eternally ESSENTIAL and positive and ooooh... a load of fun too. I still believe that the perpetually extending jigsaw puzzles of our lives are enhanced by the involvement of expression, whatever the medium used. Put bluntly, I still believe in the Magic Of Pop." I remember back in the day when the Glasgow Virgin store was all grimy black and shocking pink peeling paint with a mass of vinyl in racks. You could walk up the staircase to the first floor, and beside all the racked up singles you'd be confronted by a mass of fanzines. I thought it was just so cool, I used to go there all the time on the way home from art school and pick up stuff like Juniper Beri Beri, Communication Blur, Legend! Attack on Bzag. Even a few years later, when the store was beginning to look shiny and the vinyl was going the way of the Dodo, you could still visit the shrinking fanzine section (a section that it shared with the 7" singles incidentally) tucked away behind computer games and pick up stuff like Simply Thrilled Honey, Are You Scared To Get Happy, Baby Honey, Caff etc. All those fanzines were just so exciting, they were what I'd always wanted from Pop, but hadn't realised until I found it. The best of these fanzines were infectious in every way. The words were excited and sharp, the whole visual experience one of movement and dynamism. A friend says similar things about the Postcard fanzines of his own youth, and that more than this, he can still quote chunks of the text from them. Important times. These days I walk into record stores, even the small independent ones and see... well not fanzines, or at least if I do it's of a minimal quantity. The nature of Pop culture has moved on, and those who would once have had to seek out a fanzine to find out about some marginally obscure band can now just pick up a copy of Select or one of the myriad of similar publications available on the shelves of WH Smiths the land over. Or, if you're hooked up to the internet and you want to know the low down on that obscure band or record, you post a message to a news group or a mailing list, and someone (hopefully) answers and solves your problem almost instantaneously. Which is great if you only want to read for information and not for inspiration. Which isn't really a gripe as such because most of the printed fanzines were only information bores anyway, it was just the occasional few which showed the flicker of inspiration and fight. However, even some of those who were inspirational in what was an underground stance of passion and fashion against the soulless style obsessive eighties mainstream became thoroughly subsumed into mainstream culture. From and through them grew a marketable version of post-punk indie, turning rebellion into money. Again. Look at what became of the independent post-punk fanzine writers that I mentioned earlier: Communication Blur: One Alan McGee was responsible for this one. Wonder what happened to him? Legend!: In those days he went by the moniker The Legend!, was sometimes called Jerry Thackery, later called himself Everett True and took over as lord god almighty of, uh is it NME or MM? I can never remember. Attack on bzag though spawned the chief of the other one in James Brown. As for Juniper Beri Beri well that was Stephen MacRobbie, aka Stephen Pastel and Aggi, both of whom are now lauded as the progenitors of indiepop, from the USA to Japan. Didn't they do well.The later fanzine folks didn't do quite so well for themselves, but still... Rockin Bob Stanley moved off from Caff and wrote for Melody Maker for a while before Pop infamy beckoned with Saint Etienne. Matt Haynes gave up on AYSTGH and teamed up with Clair KVATCH Wadd to become an indiepop mogul with the loved or loathed Sarah records, and now alone with Shinkansen. They all did all right for themselves out of it, which is just fine I guess, inventing and reinventing genres and sub-themes from which to keep themselves and their media in jobs and cash. Fair enough, that's Pop (mass production and inherently industry money was always vital to Pop), except that for some people there's still a nagging feeling that in terms of what they actually achieved artistically post-fanzine was a bit of a let down. A feeling that there was too much compromise, not enough of that 'keeping the faith' which seemed important to them all back in the day. As Kevin might say, they didn't keep it 'Pure'. They lost 'IT'. Maybe all they lost was a sense of adventure, and maybe that's being too harsh. Whatever... times move on and some of us are still plugging away with the same spirit if not entirely the same soundtrack. Maybe we're truly the losers for still believing that content and intent are more important than profit and fame. Someone else can decide that one."The essence of time is to find a new way to do things."So if fanzines have disappeared from record store shelves, where have they gone to? Well the above argument about the relevance and market for fanzines stands, although it's also true to say that fanzines have moved even deeper underground and are much more specialist than they ever were. People use them for much more personal causes, which is just great. My personal favourites are those stuck together by school kids who feel that need to communicate, and those are the ones that come across best as emotive yelps and giggles. Cool. But it's also true to say that fanzine writers are starting to use new mediums for their expression, and the internet is one place where they are going. The big question though is, if it came to a contest between fanzine and ezine, which would come out on top? Obviously the crossover between the 60s/70s hippie counterculture and the computer industry has made for a preponderance of new-ageist fractal loving evangelists. This is something you have to live with on the internet, but that's okay, because things move fast enough for there to be enough spirit of eclecticism creeping into ezines to keep things exciting and inspirational. It's also a quickly growing medium, so just like in the real world of ink and paper, there's always going to be more piles of crap to sift through before you find the somethings that you really dig. Such problems of quality and personal taste will exist whatever the medium.As for actually producing these somethings, well DIY publishing on the internet (or to be more precise on the world wide web) is as easy or as difficult as it is to produce a photocopied paper fanzine. Easy in that assuming you have access (you never had/have to own the stuff) to the resources required (computer/net access = typewriter/photocopier. HTML/graphics software = scissors and glue), ANYone can do it. Hard in that, if you've got nothing much to say or have no idea about visual presentation then what you produce will suck whatever the medium.That said, it is more difficult to produce an ezine which packs the same emotional punch that the best ink'n'paper fanzines can manage. Things are getting better but until we get some way of html authoring that supports/allows fanzine design staples like text running at angles and around pictures of irregular outline (without having to cheat and do it as a graphic), then we're stuck with rigid columns, just like the 'real' press (and aping the real press was never the goal of any right minded fanzine writer). I look at my favourite fanzines and dream of being able to use the same visual excitement in an ezine that isn't so graphic heavy that it takes forever to download, in which time the viewer has buggered off someplace else. Things are progressing for sure, but it's still not enough, not yet at least. Oh yeah, and by exciting and effective page design I don't mean overloading with full colour images and multimedia Java and Shockwave gimmicks, I mean not much more than considered use of colour, text and space.The physicality of the fanzine, or lack of it in the case of the ezine, also raises another issue. We are borne of a western culture which promotes the product, and the accumulation of product as a symbol of our progress. The fanzine fits into this scheme nicely, which is why it is so Pop. But the fanzines which inspired me were ones which bemoaned the effects of mass-consumption and which attacked the very nature of wealth accumulation and measured progress as a continual personal movement forward. Surely then the movement of the fanzine to the ezine solves this problem at least in part? We can no longer collect and flaunt our collections of product in visible, physical form but instead allow it to gather in memory. Either our own personal vaults of the mind or stored in hardware somewhere out of view. Of course then the hardware we use to store those memories becomes the measure by which we display our wealth, which is arguably the same thing, but at least it's not as visible and doesn't clog up the cupboards, or fill boxes under the bed. And as a creator it's a lot easier to ignore the fact that people may be ignoring your artefact on the internet than it is with boxes of unsold printed matter clogging up aforementioned spaces. Ezine sneaks it. What about other areas? A friend criticised the use of the ezine over the fanzine on the grounds of it's lack of accessibility to potential readers. He thinks that the sort of person who would get something from a fanzine is the sort of person who probably won't have internet access. But I think that his question of accessibility to ezines is something that isn't really an issue. Remember that in the heyday of the fanzine it was hard to get access to any of them unless you lived in the big cities. With ezines this isn't a problem for anyone who lives in the sticks, because with an internet connection that barrier no longer exists. For someone living in the cities it's probably even easier to find an ezine with the stuff they want than to find a printed fanzine, simply because in the city there's less of a requirement for the internet access to be from home. So in the UK at least it's the wealthier male who has private internet access, but there's free access from universities and colleges, more cyber cafes, more access from schools creeping in, and eventually there will hopefully be public library access. In that respect the ezine wins easily. And getting a fanzine from another country? Difficult and expensive. Ezines? Easy and cheap. Want to be able to quickly publish your opinions? Hand write or type it and photocopy it, hand it out to your friends and to strangers in the street for sure, but what about getting it further? Distribution, paying for postage, the hassles of making flyers... Or upload your file to your server and it's there for the world to look at instantly. Announce in the directories and news groups. So only a few people will probably bother to look anyway, but is that so different from fanzines which have print runs of a couple of hundred, half of which sit in your bedroom for ever? We've had more visitors to our ezine in three months than we've sold copies of fanzines in three years. There's doubtless many other arguments for and against both mediums, but I do think that in so many respects, the ezine is potentially a great successor to the ink'n'paper fanzine. I strongly suspect that as future generations grow up taking the screen interface more for granted (something like 90% of students aged 11-16 that I teach have a computer at home) and internet access becomes cheaper and easier then there'll be more people actually producing the electronic equivalents of Hungry Beat and Are You Scared To Get Happy? and more people who will be able to view and get excited about discovering them. It's going to happen. I just don't really see how it won't. It's a modern and exciting medium, and we've just got to trust that there's always going to be people with great things to say through it. We can make the start by ensuring we do something positive and brilliant with it ourselves. Alistair Fitchett, October 1996
Nuevo single de Comet Gain
Un ep en formato de 12"
the most soulful and under-appreciated indie band of the 90s and 00s, comet gain return with a beautiful three track 12" in a poster sleeve. the recent 'city fallen' leaves album is an alientated urban soul classic and now new york cool label what's your rupture? have released this staggeringly good 12" single of new tracks. no-one makes misery such good company as david feck and 'beautiful despair' is one of his best, a mighty lo-fi rock'n'roll rhythm scaffolding words of deep melancholy. 'never die has neat melodies played with real soul and with the touch of the tyde about it. the b-side is given over to the seven-minute mainlighting 'mystery (finchley road)', like the velvets 'the gift' set in north london, narrated by jon slade and populated by characters sharing the names of the band. the clipped guitars and electronic rhythms become hypnotic as the forces of logic destroy the drifters heart.
03/01/2007
Más vale tarde que nunca
Aunque las navidades ya se han acabado... Tomad nota de esta canción de Hello Saferide: "Ipod XChristmas"
Razzia Records (record label from heaven, also known as the label that signed yours truly) are putting together a compilation of Christmas songs called “Oh no… it’s Christmas!” Our contribution is called I-Pod X-mas.
I won’t tell you anything else about it except that I’m rather pleased with the line: “They say there’s supposed to be three wise men. Well, I’ve been searching, and I haven’t found a single one.”
Fuente: hellosaferide.com
06/01/2007
Twee.net polls
Best Band:1. Math and Physics Club (20)
2. Camera Obscura (19)
3. Belle And Sebastian (15)
4. Love is All (9)
Pants Yell! (9)
The Pipettes (9)
5. The Lucksmiths (8)
The Radio Dept. (8)
6. Voxtrot (7)
7. Irene (6)
Postal Blue (6)
8. The Besties (5)
Casper and the Cookies (5)
The Legends (5)
Pipas (5)
9. Baby Calendar (4)
The Blow (4)
The Faintest Ideas (4)
Mahogany (4)
The Specific Heats (4)
Best new band in 2006:
1. Baby Calender (8)
2. Cats on Fire (8)
Manhattan Love Suicides (8)
3. Lucky Soul (7)
4. Math and Physics Club (6)
Voxtrot (6)
5. Ideal Free Distrobution (5)
The Electric Pop Group (5)
Velcro Stars (5)
6. The Argonauts (4)
The Ballet (4)
The Besties (4)
Cause Co-Motion (4)
Celestial (4)
The Faintest Ideas (4)
Love Dance (4)
Patience Please (4)
Best band not from the UK or US:
1. Elekibass (5)
Love Is All (5)
2. Irene (4)
Postal Blue (4)
The Faintest Ideas (4)
The Legends (4)
The Radio Dept. (4)
3. Acid House Kings (3)
Annemarie (3)
The Lucksmiths (3)
Cats on Fire (3)
Moscow Olympics (3)
best pop songs:
1. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken (13)
2. Belle And Sebastian - Another Sunny Day (10)
3. Belle and Sebastian - Funny Little Frog (8)
4. The Blow - Parentheses (6)
5. I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona (5)
Math and Physics Club - Darling, Pease Come Home (5)
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (5)
6. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country (4)
Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy (4)
The Pipettes - Pull Shapes (4)
7. Casper and the Cookies - Sid From Central Park (3)
Cats on fire - Higher Grounds (3)
The Faintest ideas - Everything is black (3)
Harper Lee - He Holds A Flame (3)
Irene - Stardust (3)
Love Is All - Busy Doing Nothing (3)
Postal Blue - The World Doesn't Need You (3)
Postal Blue - Vou Deixar Pra Depois (3)
Rocket Punch - Michael, dont go to private school (3)
Sambassadeur - Kate (3)
best albums:
1. Camera Obscura - Let's get out of this Country (24)
2. Math And Physics Club - Math And Physics Club (22)
3. Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (17)
4. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes (12)
5. Pants Yell! - Recent Drama (10)
6. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song (8)
7. Irene - Apple Bay (7)
The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief (7)
Pipas - Sorry Love (7)
8. Casper and the Cookies - Optimists Club (5)
Mahogany - Connectivity (5)
The Manhattan Love Suicides - The Manhattan Love Suicides (5)
Rose Melberg - Cast Away The Clouds (5)
The Specific Heats - Aboard A Spaceship Of The Imagination (5)
The Television Personalities - My Dark Places (5)
The Besties - Singer (5)
most amazing live experiences:
1. Belle And Sebastian (15)
2. Camera Obscura (10)
3. Athens Popfest (9)
4. The Lucksmiths (8)
5. Acid House Kings / The Legends (7)
Love is All (7)
6. The Pipettes (6)
POPFEST! New England (6)
7. Language of Flowers (5)
8. The Clientele (4)
Jens Lekman (4)
The Poison Control Center (4)
best record labels:
1. Labrador (17)
2. Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (15)
3. Matinee Recordings (14)
4. Asaurus Records (5)
Magic Marker Records (5)
Merge Records (5)
Music is my girlfriend (5)
5. Humblebee Recordings (3)
What's Your Rupture (3)
best indie-pop web sites:
1. www.indiepages.com (25)
2. www.twee.net (12)
3. www.indie-mp3.co.uk (6)
www.indiepop.it (6)
4. www.tangents.co.uk (4)
5. www.drownedinsound.com (3)
best paper fanzine or magazine:
1. Plan B (6)
2. Dagger (5)
3. Biff Bang Pop (3)
Venus (3)
09/01/2007
Las 100 mejores canciones del pop
10/01/2007
The Client versionean a Adam & The Ants
Su nuevo single dicen que es una versión de "Zerox", de la etapa punk (1979) de Adam and the Ants, anterior a su fichaje por CBS, pero la verdad es que no se parecen en nada... Mucho mejor canción la de The Client
11/01/2007
The Postmarks: Soft Pop
Debut Album Available
FEBRUARY 6th"
Miami, Florida
Francoise Hardy, The Smiths, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach
The Postmarks deliver smooth, sophisticated pop. their soft vocals linger with you the way good solid music should. Their songs and recordings have been carefully crafted as a "heartbreak factory": “A suburban bedroom symphony suffused with post-teenage heartbreak and painstaking pointillism." (The New Times Broward/Palm Beach.) With nods to French pop and Brian Wilson's orchestral arrangements, The Postmarks believe they can rekindle the love affair people once had for beautiful music and well-crafted songs about the trials and tribulations of life.
The Postmarks cite Brian Wilson as a major musical influence (who doesn’t?), and the upbeat melodies do justice to the statement. Though it may seem to be a bit parallel, The Smiths are one of the band’s most vocal lyrical influences. (Obscure Sounds Blog)
Mike Appelstein Top 10 - 2006
And here's my top 10, coming from the cutting-edge perspective of a Midwestern 40-year-old ex-hipster:
1) Slumber Party: Musik
2) Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit *
3) The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely
4) The Long Blondes: Someone To Drive You Home
5) Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of...Your Ass
6) Broadcast: The Future Crayon
7) Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out Of This Country
8) Love Is All: Nine Times That Same Song
9) Mission of Burma: The Obliterati
10) The Loud Family: What If It Works? *
* granted, hardly their best efforts, but I did like and listen to them a lot
My top 5 reissues: Delta 5, This Heat, CD86, Josef K and Ut. Predictable.
Valerie se pasa a la chanson
Con Autour de Lucie en una pausa que podría ser definitiva según Les Inrocks, Valérie Leulliot ha anunciado la edición en Enero de "Caldeira", su primer disco en solitario y para el que ha contado con la participación de Stephan Kramer, Sébastien Lafargue y de Christophe Miossec... El primer single se titula "Mon Homme Blessé"
The Pines
Superb 20-track collection of singles, compilation appearances, and unreleased tracks from London pop duo The Pines—a collaboration of legendary American songstress Pam Berry and amiable English gent Joe Brooker featuring strong songwriting, intricate guitars, and exquisite harmonies. Joe is a prolific songwriter and one-half of English pop duo The Foxgloves, while Pam’s distinguished resume includes association with notable indie bands of the last decade including Belmondo, Black Tambourine, Bright Coloured Lights, The Castaway Stones, Glo Worm, The Seashell Sea, The Shapiros, The Snowdrops, and Veronica Lake, plus guest spots on recordings by The Clientele, Jasmine Minks, The Lucksmiths, The Relict, and The Saturday People. Beginning in 2000, The Pines released a series of limited edition singles for esteemed record labels Annika (Spain), Becalmed (UK), Foxyboy (USA), Gifted (Australia), Long Lost Cousin (UK), and Matinée (USA) and contributed compilation tracks to collections by Chickfactor (USA), Papercuts (UK), and Red Square (USA). In addition to highlights from these releases, ‘It’s Been A While’ includes three songs from an extremely rare self-released Christmas CD and unreleased covers of songs by Young Marble Giants and The Cat’s Miaow.
Tracklisting: 1. Milk Bar 2. A Hundred Doors 3. Forget-Me-Nots 4. Chalet 5. A Rainy Day 6. MGM 7. Please Don't Get Married (Without Asking Me) 8. Static 9. Fields In Spain 10. Marie Claire 11. Baby, You'll Do 12. Aurora 13. Some Slow Afternoon 14. Brand-New-Life 15. Familiar 16. Seven Clubs 17. Miracles 18. High Street 19. I See Stars 20. Kisses & Fog
13/01/2007
Calenture
¡Qué bien suena el cd 2 de la reedición de Calenture de The Triffids!
Las versiones del cd 2 parecen grabadas en el local del ensayo. Son demos anteriores a la majestuosa y gran producción de Gil Norton, pero demuestran que las canciones se sustentan aún sin pulirlas. Como un diamante en bruto
14/01/2007
Sally Shapiro, Italo Synth-Pop desde Suecia
Sally Shapiro is a slice of irresistible italo-disco-synthpop. Produced by Johan Agebjörn, there’s a bit of naivety in the vocals that could be compared to some late 80s Freestyle hits. “I’ll Be By Your Side” is just so… sweet. It’ll have you hugging yourself. Even though they’re doing different things, Sally Shapiro reminds me slightly of Annie. Like they both successfully bottled the same mix of carefreeness and coolness.
¡Y hace una versión del "Anorak Christmas" de Nixon!
Disco Romance turns the Smiths' happy-music-with-sad-lyrics formulation on its head-- and then you dance to it.
Sally Shapiro es una chica sueca que canta disco ochentero, azucarado y plástico. Es como esa música que oyes de vacaciones en el mediterráneo griego, saliendo de un bar adolescente oliendo a trago dulce. Village Voice dice que es la Belle and Sebastian del techno y Pitchfork ha incluido varios tracks en sus Infinite Mixtapes.
17/01/2007
The Smithereens y The Beatles
Here's the press release for the NEW band release coming in 2007.
The Smithereens to Release "Meet The Smithereens!," an Affectionate Homage to The Fab Four's Groundbreaking Record "Meet The Beatles!" on Anniversary of Original 1964 Release Date
The Jersey Beat Meets the Mersey Beat in January 2007; Extensive Liner Notes by Legendary Beatles Promoter Sid Bernstein, Musician Lenny Kaye and Beatles Historians Bruce Spizer, Dennis Mitchell and Andy Babiuk
NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 07, 2006 -- KOCH Records announces the release of "Meet The Smithereens!," the new album by New Jersey's The Smithereens in January 2007. Paying homage to The Beatles' groundbreaking album, "Meet The Beatles!," the Smithereens have rerecorded the album in its entirety, and the result is a fun and nostalgic trip through 12 classic songs done Smithereens style. The CD also features liner notes by legendary promoter Sid Bernstein, musician (and some would say musicologist) Lenny Kaye, Beatles historians Bruce Spizer, Dennis Mitchell and Andy Babiuk, author of the fantastic book, "Beatles Gear."
Having released 7 albums -- and reaching Gold and Platinum status along the way -- during their career, the Smithereens spawned several Top 40 radio hits, including, "A Girl Like You," "Too Much Passion," "Blood and Roses" and more.
The Smithereens return with an affectionate tribute to one of their favorite bands, The Beatles. "Meet The Beatles!" influenced not only their musical style, but arguably influenced the style of every rock band since the album's initial release in January of 1964.
"Meet The Beatles!" was the Fab Four's second album, but their first official U.S. release. But unlike its British counterpart "With The Beatles!," which was comprised mostly of cover songs, "Meet the Beatles!" featured songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and proved to be mind-shattering to music fans in an age in which artists rarely wrote their own material.
Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken says, "'Meet the Beatles!' was a call to arms to an army of musically-inclined kids across the nation. There was no turning back after hearing this LP and seeing the Beatles on the 'Ed Sullivan Show.' We were instantly hipped to the fact that there can never be anything cooler than playing in a rock n roll band."
The tracklisting:
1. I Want to Hold Your Hand 7. Don't Bother Me
2. I Saw Her Standing There 8. Little Child
3. This Boy 9. 'Till There Was You
4. It Won't Be Long 10. Hold Me Tight
5. All I've Got To Do 11. I Wanna Be Your Man
6. All My Lovin' 12. Not A Second Time
Labrador 100 Box Set
Sólo 22 euros con gastos incluidos
LABRADOR 100
»a complete history of popular music«
CD-LAB0100
We celebrate our 100th release and 10 years as a label with an exclusive 4 CD Box with one song from each release ever. 100 songs + thick booklet with Labrador history and interview, comments on each track, the bands list their Labrador favourites and more.
Order now and get it February 14!
200 SEK { €22 }
The Fall
Verdaderamente el Mark Smith es una risa.
En el nuevo lp de The Fall se atreve a hacer una versión de Merle Haggard -"White LIne Fever"- y sale victorioso.
Por cierto, no conocía la versión original y es un gran tema
Sanctuary has confirmed the tracklisting for the UK release of Reformation Post TLC, due out on Slogan (a Sanctuary subsidiary) on 12 February 2007. There will be CD and vinyl editions.
Reformation Post T.L.C. is described by a spokesperson for the label as 12 songs of "fuzzy wuzzy psyche-garage tunes." With an album cover shot by famed photographer Bob Gruen -- who has also photographed music icons like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, among others -- it looks like the Fall are set for a triumphant return following their last release, 2005's Fall Heads Roll.
El nuevo Mojo lo pone muy bien: http://www.visi.com/fall/gigography/image/07feb_mojo/index.html
18/01/2007
Chickfactor weblog actualizado y The Pines (sí, otra vez)
Esta vez Gail O´Hara nos habla del London Film Festival, del Saint Etienne Xmas Party, del nuevo vídeo clip de The Gothic Archies, una mini entrevista a The Clientele (donde dicen: "everything we've ever released is a tribute to the monkees") de la Joe Meek Night que prepara Bob Stanley, de recetas de pastelitos vegetarianos y del fantástico cd de The Pines.
Precisamente esto es lo que más escucho últimamente. NÚMERO 1 en mi universo. Las canciones son preciosas y Pam Berry canta como nunca. Un 10, aunque la lástima sea que hasta 15 canciones de la discografía de The Pines hayan quedado fuera, incluidas maravillas como "Leavin´in your mind" (de Matinee Summer Splash) o "Ungrammatical". Naturalmente yo ya me hecho mi propia expanded/deluxe version de "It´s been a while" para arreglar esta inconclusa recopilación. Matinee debería haberse estirado y haber hecho un doble CD
20/01/2007
Malcolm Middleton TODOS VAMOS A MORIR SOLOS
Sí, es uno de los 2 miembros de Arab Strap.
Y sus letras siguen siendo super depresivas:
We’re all going to die, what if there’s nothing? We’ll all have to face this alone. There’s a when not an if inside everybody, mortal thoughts like this can make you feel so alone. You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone, all alone…”
Pero la canción "We´re All Going To Die" está muy bien. Todo un hit. Es curioso como una letra así puede tener unas melodías tan optimistas. Casi casi suena como Talulah Gosh, sobre todo por la voz femenina...
Keren Ann, nouvel album
Le nouvel album de Keren Ann paraîtra en France et dans toute l'Europe le 23 avril 2007 chez Capitol, et aux USA le 8 mai chez Metro Blue/Blue Note. Ce cinquième disque est le successeur de “Nolita”. Le premier single extrait de “Keren Ann” est “Lay Your Head Down”. “Liberty”, “The Harder Ships Of The World”, “Between The Flatland And The Caspian Sea” et “Where No Endings End” comptent parmi les neuf nouvelles compositions originales de cet album produit par Keren Ann, mixé par Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Alanis Morissette), et masterisé par Bob Ludwig. “Keren Ann” a permis à l'artiste d'explorer de nouvelles dimensions sonores : “Dans ce disque, tout ce qui touche au mixage et au remplissage de l'espace avec des éléments variés, a été vraiment plaisant. Il y a également eu davantage de post-production, comme cette chorale enregistrée en Islande que j'ai ensuite emmenée chez moi pour voir quel parti je pouvais en tirer.”
21/01/2007
Domingo por la mañana y un fanzine de Postcard
Es domingo por la mañana... Y aquí estoy entrando en la página de Tangents y encontrándome con que puedo descargarme ¡gratis! un fanzine dedicado a Postcard que realizó en los 80 una chica americana llamada Barbara.
Y leo el correspondiente artículo que explica todo esto y creo que me voy a desmayar de la emoción:
A Postcard Records fanzine Part 2 of John Carney's Shivers inside series
The Popguns - Official live tape gratis en indie MP3
¡Y el sonido es bueno!
ver: http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/09/popguns.html
an official live recording (on cassette) which was given away to fans at one of the bands gigs.
The Popguns - Official Live Tape (62mb) Download here.
23/01/2007
Efe Eme pasa a ser una e-revista
Ya no habrá edición en papel
Con sólo registrarte, te puedes bajar en pdf la revista cada mes y además hay secciones, noticias y -por supuesto- blogs. Uno de ellos de Darío Vico
24/01/2007
Days
Vuelve Shelflife Records con tres fichajes nuevos, de los que sólo destaco los suecos DAYS
http://myspace.com/shelfliferecords
http://www.myspace.com/daysswe
Esto es lo que escribió de ellos el blog de rainfelldown:
This is the best one yet, I promise you! Janglepop is back. This is probably the Best Swedish Band Ever, at least just as good as Happydeadmen. They're called Days, and I won't tell you any more about them, there's no need. Some of us have had a feeling that guitars were on their way back, and with Days the future of Swedish POP! has been secured for, well, as long as Days are around. Go to Stockholm and see them in November. The only comparison I can think of is St. Christopher, and how's that for a comparison? There are more heavenly sounds on MySpace. Discover Days, get to know them, be their friends, and give them an affectionate hug every night before you go to sleep. Don't be scared to get happy.
25/01/2007
Libro sobre el sello Rough Trade
Black Dog Publishing -una editorial a tener en cuenta: http://www.bdpworld.com/ - ha editado ya un par de referencias sobre dos sellos dentro de su colección the labels unlimited series: Warp y Rough Trade. DJ Yanopuedomas ya tiene su copia del segundo. Un libro que promete (ya sólo en la portada se ven singles de The Smiths, Young Marble Giants y Subway Sect). Sergio, ya me lo pasarás.
This book is a welcome distillation of the rough trade story from the labels perspective, written by prolific music writer, rob young, (editor-at-large of the wire magazine). geoff travis set up the record label rough trade as a communistic, diy alternative to the mainstream in the mid 70s, and it became one of the most influential companies in britain's music history. the label has cut countless ground breaking records by artists including the smiths, the raincoats, scritti politti, the pop group, the go-betweens, aztec camera, robert wyatt, the fall, arthur russell, ivor cutler, linton kwesi johnson, galaxie 500 and mazzy star. following on from warp, the first in the labels unlimited series, this book looks back at the history of rough trade records, tracing the changes that have occurred over the past three decades across the board; examining both the production aspect of the company and the distribution and record shops that operate as separate businesses with worldwide reputations. filled with archive images, profiles and interviews, rough trade tells the story of a label that altered the landscape of the music industry, and traces the development of independent music in britain over the past 30 years.
26/01/2007
Future Pilot Aka
New Future Pilot AKA album released on 5th February 2007
'Secrets From the Clockhouse' will be available on Creeping Bent Records on February 5th 2007.The album will be available as a download via Bleep, Rough Trade and various sites. The long player features collaborations and contributions from members of The Go-Betweens (Robert Forster and the late great Grant McLennan) , Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore/Kim Gordon) , Belle & Sebastian (Stuart Murdoch/Sarah Martin), The Fire Engines (Davy Henderson), Can (Damo Suzuki) , The Minutemen/Stooges (Mike Watt) & Unkle Bob as well as featuring Scottish illustrator/novelist Alasdair Gray, early music group Concerto Caledonia, and folk singer Karine Polwart. Liner notes are written by musician and composer Gavin Bryars.
Incluye las dos canciones del gran single "Eyes of love" y "Changes"
28/01/2007
The April Skies
He estado escuchando al recopilación C06 y la verdad no me ha dicho mucho. Lo único que me ha llamado la atención es un tema de la banda noruega The April Skies titulado rise and rise again. Pero no pondría mi mano en el fuego por ellos después de escuchar los demás mp3s de su web. Tampoco se podía esperar mucho más de un grupo cuyo nombre proviene de una canción de The Jesus and Mary Chain.29/01/2007
la pose de Math and Physics Club
Mucha foto en bibliotecas, mucha pose intelectualoide, para luego afirmar que "a nosotros lo que nos gusta es Harry Potter..."
What's the last book you read?
(Slightly embarrassed) I wouldn't necessarily call it high literature, but lately I've been reading the Harry Potter books.
Hey, that's cool! I'm of the opinion that reading is reading--it doesn't have to always be some sort of high-art literature.
This is going to sound very twee, but the books are really fun and there's a lot of imagination to them, and I like that. They're an escape to read.
What prompted you to decide to read them?
It was really just curiosity, mainly. It's been such a big thing for a long time now, and I have a lot of friends who have read the series, and I guess I finally just caved in. We were taking a plane trip, and I thought, "Okay, I'll read it on the plane," and I got sucked into that world, and I started reading one right after the other. I think that's how it happened for a lot of people, though. It's an escape, but it's a fun thing to do, you know?
Had you been avoiding them because they have been so popular?
I don't really do that, but I just figured that they were kids' books. I kind of read whatever I feel like at the moment. I wasn't sure I'd be that interested in them, but I found them to be really creative, and it got my imagination going, and I like that!
Growing up, were you much of a fantasy reader?
I wasn't. In fact, I wasn't much of a reader growing up. I didn't really start reading until I turned about 30. All of a sudden, I felt like something turned on inside me, and that I should start reading more. The weird thing is, I've always loved books. That's the strange thing. I've always loved going into book stores, buying old books and classics, and I'd think to myself, "Someday, I'm going to read all of these!" (Laughs) But then something turned on inside me, and I started reading them.
Entrevista al completo en Press play and record blog
Novedades bibliográficas musicales por Bob Stanley
Artículo publicado en The Times por mi gurú favorito.
Impagable la cita que destaca de Neil Tennant a próposito del You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You´re Drunk"
(“People perceive You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk as ironic,” Neil Tennant complains, “when in fact it’s a painfully heartbreaking song to me, because it’s so true.”)
E impagables también las demás citas que subraya Stanley (como la de Sade o la de Everett True respecto a Nirvana). Un Lince este Bob.
NO BIG BEATLES OR ELVIS tomes emerged in 2006, leaving the way for the super- middleweights to enter the ring. Brian Wilson hasn’t been served by a decent biography since David Leaf’s long out-of-print The Beach Boys. Peter Ames Carlin’s Catch A Wave (Rodale, £18.99/offer £16.99) is neither fawning — as much of the post-Smile press has been — nor lightweight. His writing has a New Yorker-like authority, droll enough to dismiss the Beach Boys’ MIU Album with “the horror, the horror”.
England’s best-loved Boys, the Pet Shop kind, have delivered Catalogue (Thames & Hudson, £29.95/£26.95), which proves how consistently great their artwork has been, even if the music has occasionally wobbled. Raised eyebrow dryness is leavened by their very real, English melancholy. “People perceive You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk as ironic,” Neil Tennant complains, “when in fact it’s a painfully heartbreaking song to me, because it’s so true.”
Tennant’s previous job was on the magazine Smash Hits, whose demise earlier this year is mourned in The Best Of Smash Hits (Sphere, £14.99/ £13.49). Although heavy on nostalgia, thankfully it reproduces in full Tom Hibbert’s extraordinary 1987 interview with Margaret Thatcher. Never afraid to reduce superstars such as “Dame David Bowie” (another Hibbert-ism) to the level of Nik Kershaw, “ver Hits” also found room for Sade’s hot kitchen tips: “I had some goat’s cheese for the first time yesterday. I was very impressed.”
Cum On Feel the Noize (Carlton, £14.99/£13.49), Alan Parker and Steve Grantley’s story of Slade, emerges in a similar pop annual format. It’s good (or “gud”) to discover that their habit of deliberately misspelling song titles began when Noddy Holder wrote Because I Love You on a tape box and it looked “soppy”. Coz I Luv You was the the first of six No 1s. Kurt Cobain once described Slade as “a band that would never bend over”.
Nirvana were similarly unbendable, although commercial success proved too much for Cobain. Nirvana: The True Story (Omnibus, £19.95/£16.95) is so titled because it is by Everett True, a Melody Maker journalist who was the singer’s confidante. “People say Nirvana changed everything,” True frowns, “but what exactly did Nirvana change? They made it easier for Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Pearl Jam and a bunch of crap bands to sell a load of records.”
Such is the fate of pop pioneersIn the second of the Labels Unlimited series, Rob Young chronicles Rough Trade (Black Dog, £19.95/£16.95). Home to post-punk heroes such as the Fall, Raincoats and Pop Group, their startling roster has provided sustenance for seemingly every new group to emerge since the Strokes. Yet reading a “dunno, y’know, whateva” interview with the Brazilian group CSS recently, I pined for the fiercely monochrome worldview of the original acts. The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart claimed that “capitalism is the most barbaric of all religions”: much as I like the Long Blondes, I can’t imagine them sounding so full of ire.
Too cool to appear on Top of the Pops, the Clash still ended up playing London Calling on Tiswas to a bunch of ten-year-olds. Chris Salewicz’s Joe Strummer biography, Redemption Song (HarperCollins, £20/£18), will fuel further debate on the man. One example. Salewicz has just been involved in a Notting Hill carnival riot with Strummer: “Two days later my phone rang. ‘All the pussy men ran to the back of the house but you stood by me. Thanks,’ breathed a familiar voice. ‘No problem, Joe,’ I said. I was very touched that he was so touched. I remember when he told the story to my new girlfriend. Then he looked at her tits. ‘Gosh,’ he said, rather spoiling the moment.”
Chronicles: Volume 1 did the job that Dylan On Dylan (Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99/£16.99) falls amusingly short on. It reprints a 1980 interview: “Once I’ve said what I need to say in a song, that’s it. I don’t want to repeat myself.” Precisely.
Better to look at the pictures in Catalogue, Rough Trade or Matthew Robertson’s Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album (Thames & Hudson, £29.95) Peter Saville´s artwork will, I’d wager, outlast Nirvana’s music or Strummer’s politics
31/01/2007
Sarah Nixey
La cantante de The Black Box Recorder debuta en solitario. Suena como una versión más pop de BBR. Dos versiones: una del grupo belga de Factory The Names, -"the nightshift"- que está muy bien y otra del "The Black hit of the space" del Travelogue de The Human League, esta menos conseguida. El Album se llama "Sing, Memory" y está editado por el sello Service Av, detrás del cual está ¡Paul Morley!, el ideólogo del post punk. Curioso. Por cierto, el clip está rodado en el mismo lugar donde Chickfactor hizo su última fiesta en Londres. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h63Oc7L8FrI
Sarah Nixey made her show business entrance as one third of the darkly glamorous pop group Black Box Recorder. She was in the severe, dreamy centre, singing scheming songs that were deadly serious about trivia, and deeply frivolous about important matters, acting out her role as interpreter and enigma with subversive attention to detail. She sang the songs as if they were bruised lullabies, as if she was soothing the 20th Century to sleep, as if she was a friend of Alice in Wonderland and Sylvia Plath who was quite partial to the Pet Shop Boys and Francoise Hardy.
Sarah is now solo, having had her group moment, her hits inside a deadpan parody of a pop group. Her flash, exotically electric singles The Collector and Strangelove were like manifestos proclaiming that she's as committed to the idea of pop as a dream, a fantasy, as she had been in Black Box Recorder, but this time the surreal edge, the emotional pressure, the deviant intensity is all her own.
She sings smart pop songs. They tell heady, half-crazed stories about minds and bodies, flesh and spirit, memories and illusions, desperation and passion. They're theme tunes to far fetched adventures, songs that play over the credit sequences to imaginary Bond films as written by Kafka, Ballard, Nabokov, Atwood. They will be hits, but not obvious hits, not everyday hits. She sings them on her forthcoming album Sing, Memory with that tough, tender combination of explicit English detachment and cryptic European emotion that's all her own.
The single: When I’m Here With You - released 29th January 2007.
The album: Sing, Memory - released 19th February 2007.
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