MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: April 2012 Pt.1

Can this be right? A gig by Jandek in Manchester this month? Indeed it is. An ultra-rare appearance by the ultra-elusive outsider folk-blues musician put on by a partnership of enterprising promoters Buried Bones and MIE Music. For all his shadowy elusiveness and absence of biographical information, Jandek has an extensive discography – 50 albums and counting. For this live show, 'The Representative of Corwood Industries' will be joined by drummer Alex Nielson (of Trembling Bells and numerous collaborations) and experimental guitarist Richard Youngs. Tickets here.

In a cruel clash on the same Saturday is the 11th Carefully Planned All Dayer, a mini-fest of DIY pop surprises headlined by the excellent indie power-pop trio Standard Fare. Two artists from Carefully Planned on the mixtape below including wunderkind Kiran Leonard (see earlier this week) with the astonishing ‘Port-Ainé’. Tickets here.


As ever a mixtape [53 mins / 60 MB] of bands playing Manchester this month to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: April 2012 [53 mins / 60 MB] - download here

Au Get Alive [3.15] (24 April The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Dan Mangan Post-War Blues [6.50] (28 April The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Kiran Leonard Port-Ainé [10.15] The Castle (21 April BUY TICKETS)
Simone Felice Group New York Times [14.20] (16 April Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Volcano The Bear My Favourite Tongues [17.04] (9 April The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Cate Le Bon Puts Me To Work [20.29] (24 April Soup Kitchen BUY TICKETS)
The Magnetic Fields The Book Of Love [23.09] (27 April RNCM BUY TICKETS)
Arthur Rigby and The Baskervylles One Stormy Night [26.36] (20 April Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Grouper Demona [30.24] (1 April Islington Mill BUY TICKETS)
Sea Of Bees Gnomes [33.14] (16 April Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
The Middle Ones Courage [37.14] (5 April Kraak BUY TICKETS)
Great Lake Swimmers Gonna Make It Through This Year [40.56] (14 April Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Sam Airey Row Upon Row [44.38] (23 April The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Douga Where Are The Others [47.51] (6 April Fuel BUY TICKETS)
Moody Gowns Nelson Skills [50.03] (21 April BUY TICKETS)
The Existence of Harvey Lord Anchorite [53.08] (8 April Dulcimer BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
2 April Y Niwl Kings Arms / 2 Apr Air Cav Band on the Wall / 3 April Those Darlins Ruby Lounge / 3 April Helmet Sound Control / 4 April Bo Weavil Tiger Lounge / 4 April Cold In Berlin Night & Day / 4 April 2:54 Deaf Institute / 5 April Patterns + Jewellers + Shinies John Rylands Library / 5 April The Wild Mercury Sound The Castle / 5 April Liz Green Deaf Institute / 5 April Other Lives Academy 3 / 5 April Ace Bushy Striptease Kraak / 5 April Gnod Islington Mill / 6 April Frazer King Night & Day / 6 April Douga Borland + Vei Fuel / 6 April Monster Island + Fetch The Witches Islington Mill / 7 April Psychemagik Night & Day / 7 April Shields Trof Fallowfield / 8 April Lewis Floyd Henry The Castle / 8 April Boy & Bear Kings Arms / 8 April Slow Club Ruby Lounge / 8 April Tinariwen The Ritz / 10 April Toy Soup Kitchen / 10 April The Monochrome Set Band On The Wall / 10 April Teen Daze Kraak / 10 April Ten The Great Dulcimer / 11 April Pelican Ruby Lounge / 11 April Simian Ghost Soup Kitchen / 11 April Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express Deaf Institute / 12 April Vieka Dulcimer / 12 April Richard Knox & Frederic D. Oberland Sacred Trinity Church / 13 April Juan Zelada The Castle / 13 April Kill Van Kulls Soup Kitchen / 13 April The Futureheads RNCM / 13 April Andrew WK Academy / 14 April The Louche FC + PINS Roadhouse / 16 April Sleep Party People The Castle / 17 April Barn Owl Islington Mill / 18 April Herman Dune Ruby Lounge / 18 April Misty’s Big Adventure Dry Bar / 18 April Maps & Atlases Night & Day / 18 April Odonis Odonis Kraak / 18 April Arthur Beatrice Trof Fallowfield / 19 April The Boss Hoss Ruby Lounge / 19 April Dry The River Academy 3 / 19 April The Gilded Palace of Sin Dulcimer / 20 April The Miserable Rich Deaf Institute / 21 April Dave Alvin & The Guilty Ones Night & Day / 21 Apr Rough Fields The Castle / 21 April Imperial Leisure Roadhouse / 21 April Jandek St Margaret’s Church / 22 April The Unthanks Royal Exchange Theatre / 22 April Of Montreal Sound Control / 22 April Ellen & The Escapades The Castle / 22 April The Staves Deaf Institute / 23 April Gabriel Minnikin Band On The Wall / 24 April Dignan Porch Deaf Institute / 25 April Various Cruelties Ruby Lounge / 27 April Electricity In Our Homes Band On The Wall / 27 April The Magnetic Fields RNCM / 28 April Nedry Deaf Institute / 29 April Russian Circles Ruby Lounge / 30 April Royal Baths Band On The Wall

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: April 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: April 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - April 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [53 mins / 60 MB] here.

KIRAN LEONARD Bowler Hat Soup

I don’t like mixtapes with that flow between songs seamlessly. I like to be jolted between track A and B, for there to be no doubt that one has stopped and the other started. I guess Kiran Leonard is the same. He has certainly sequenced the opening of his free-to-download album “Bowler Hat Soup” that way. ‘Dear Lincoln’ is a stuttering Of Montreal theatrical piano-bashing romp that handbrake-turns into ‘Brunswick Street’ an off-cut from Robert Wyatt as sung by Rufus Wainwright. It fades out with carnival pipe-organ into ‘Port-Ainé’, one of the highlights of this sprawling record, which sounds like a bucolic Antlers camping out in Portland, Oregon – not a home-recording from Dobcross, Oldham.

Port-Ainé by Kiran Leonard

And the shape-shifting continues even if tracks do start to segue more smoothly. ‘Smilin’ Morn’ might start off as seemingly innocuous piano balladry but ends up somewhere distinctly odder, filled with the ivory-bashing ire of Michael Gira or The Dresden Dolls. ‘Oakland Highball’ is a feisty cocktail of sombre intoning, accordion, Zappa wig-out and about five different time signatures in under two minutes. This is only five out of sixteen songs – other songs continue to move restlessly between blues, prog-pop, scuzz-rock and a myriad of other musical reference points. Kiran describes it as ‘densely packed’, noting that he plays over two dozen instruments on a record that took eighteen months to craft.

He’s not a first-timer when it comes to making music. His previous album ‘The Big Fish’ opened with a 26 minute ‘prog-jazz epic’. Before that he made electronic music under the name Pend Oreille. And apparently Kiran is still only 16 years old. SIXTEEN. He's either a hoaxer or a genius or possibly both. Either way ‘Bowler Hat Soup’ is an extraordinary achievement: complex, ambitious and with a maturity that finds many seasoned song-writers lacking. It combines the precocious and prolific output of the young Conor Oberst (remember, three Bright Eyes albums before he was 20) with the singular, wayward free-spiritedness of Jeff Mangum. Forget what Kiran Leonard does with mixtapes, it's his own music for all its erratic eccentricity that's important here. This album is not perfect, some editing and honing wouldn’t go amiss to tame the wilder excesses, but Jesus, what a talent.


The album finishes with ‘A Purpose’ performed on an 1898 American reed organ (where does a sixteen year old get these instruments?). It simply consists of the sombre, swelling tones of that organ and solitary voice. It recalls with sad fondness cross-country bike rides and drinking pop but also sings of the mysteries of life, contemporary societal breakdown (“I saw youths take substance / smashing our shelters / a lost generation”) and ultimately seeking a purpose in this world. It is deeply and mysteriously poignant, almost spiritual, and it moves me in ways I can't articulate. For all his energetic volatility, I think Kiran Leonard is well on the way to finding his purpose.

A Purpose by Kiran Leonard

Dear Lincoln by Kiran Leonard

Kiran Leonard Bowler Hat Soup [BUY]

LAST HARBOUR + EASTER @ BAND ON THE WALL 26 March 2012

Uh-oh - tables are out at Band on the Wall. Maybe they're not expecting a capacity audience tonight? It was certainly a small but perfectly formed crowd for opening act Vei. Such solo laptop glitchery does not make the most visual or animated of supports but the overlapping pulses, loops and drones was a pleasantly serene if slightly cerebral start. Small crowd yes but enthusiastic response at the set’s conclusion.


Easter's ‘Somethin’ American’ was a joyously chugging earworm of a song from last year. It was the set opener tonight but full marks to the four-piece – Thomas Long, Andrew Cheetham, Gavin Clarke and Danny Saul - for adding some simple theatrics to kick it off. As both guitars held down single, sustained notes, the machine head of one was dragged across the top of the amp to add some teeth-on-edge distorted crackle before into the song proper. Spine-tingling. Under the overly bright yellow glare of some unatmospheric lighting, Easter went on to deliver some very atmospheric and at times very ferocious noise-rock. Tonight I really heard the Sebadoh connection in their heavy, 90s leaning guitars.





There were moments of quiet melody or vocal passages but most songs in this six song set were inexorably drawn to intense, twin guitar work-outs. The set finished with more distorted noise: manual manipulation of effects pedal feedback that was both thunderously ominous but also electrifyingly refreshing. Wow - heavy stuff. Tonight’s set hugely whetted my appetite for the band's debut album “Innocence Man” released this June.

I last saw Last Harbour seven years ago supporting Mark Mulcahy in the basement of an unloved – and now unmissed – cafe-bar. I haven't kept up with Last Harbour’s steady output since - especially the two most recent albums, last year's more heavily orchestrated “Volo” and this year's more stripped-back “Your Heart, It Carries The Sound” (and I suspect most of the set came from these two, unfamiliar to me, records). The six-piece – voice, bass, two guitars (or guitar and violin), drums and Roland keyboards – play a funereal pop (“misery... with a smile”) as smartly attired as their waist-coated, brylcreemed singer. There is an assured stateliness to their music – and a maturity since I saw them last – that is a gradual pull in rather than immediate hook.



The wide stage and slightly bohemian feel of Band on the Wall suited them well – even the red neon of the venue’s logo which I normally find a distraction adding to the moodiness. Last Harbour are another band without overt stage theatrics but let the songs – creepy, doom-laden or poignant – create their own sombre ambience – and the early ones that alternated male and female voice worked particularly well I thought. I initially didn’t see this line-up as natural bedfellows but by the end of the night realised what they share is that they all create distinct and darkly atmospheric music. Easter delivered all that I hoped - plus some exceptional playing to boot - and the headlining set made me realise how much catching up I have to do with Last Harbour.

THE WAVE PICTURES @ KINGS ARMS, SALFORD 24 March 2012

Several members of the Pierre Hall-fronted Golden Glow have been working on their own music since the band's debut album last year (see Songs For Walter and Owl Babies). But the opening two songs of tonight’s support set were a good re-assertion of the Felt-influenced sounds of full Golden Glow live band - namely taut rhythm section bedrock for the shimmering molten gold twin guitars to spill over and around. But as the eight song set progressed, the band also ratcheted up both the volume and raucous effort (some furious drumming precariously pushing the kick-drum forwards across the stage). A shame that some technical hitches between songs interrupted the flow but still a glorious sound.




I'm always a little wary of gigs promoting an album before it has been released. But when the band is the ever dependable The Wave Pictures there's little to be concerned about unfamiliarity or quality. For a band so casual and stripped back in set-up - tip up on stage, plug in and play, with none of the interlinked banks of effects pedals as used by their support - they are phenomenally accomplished musicians. The trio can wring heartfelt emotion out of songs - a pared back, off-mic ‘Sweetheart’ or the Jonny Helm sung ‘Sleepy Eye’ and ‘Now You Are Pregnant’ - alongside pacy anger and bitterness (‘Leave That Scene Behind’) and pleading desperation (new song’ Give Me A Second Chance’).





Another interesting contradiction with The Wave Pictures is how thoroughly nice, even gauche, they are in person - David Tattersall asking the crowd to sing a line in ‘Seagulls’ but acknowledging it's OK not to “because I wouldn't want to either” - but their songs deal with moments of concentrated emotion and conflict, like expertly penned, highly nuanced short stories. As with the casual demeanour/skilled playing combination, the former only goes to highlight the power of the latter.



The band got a bit tripped up about whether they were in Manchester or not ("it's like saying Huddersfield is in Leeds" shouted someone to Yorkshire-born drummer Jonny Helm) but were clearly delighted at having a sold-out gig for their first headline show - in either Manchester or Salford - for three years. I think their memory of past shows is flawed - I recall one poorly attended gig at The Roadhouse but others have been well supported if not as packed and sweaty as tonight's. Whoever's memory is more reliable though, The Wave Pictures should not leave it so long for a return visit. There’s clearly an enthusiastic and welcoming crowd here plus once again the trio demonstrate with aplomb they are one of finest live bands around, no matter how casual or polite they are between songs.

The Set List:

Susan Rode The Cyclone
Stay Here And Take Care Of The Chickens
I Thought Of You Again
Give Me A Second Chance
Kittens
Little Surprise
Sleepy Eye
Seagulls
My Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year
Sweetheart
Eskimo Kiss
Don't Blame Your Parents
The Airplanes At Brescia
Leave That Scene Behind
Now You Are Pregnant
Spaghetti
---
Come Home Tessa Buckman
I Love You Like A Madman

OLYMPIAN Three Songs

‘Paper Boats Sink’ said the email on the demise of Aron Robinson’s previous band. Sadly not many people took notice of the short-lived,six-piece Paper Boats: I wrote about them in July 2010 here and remember this live review from the time but saw precious little other coverage. But maybe his new band Olympian will prove a more durable and more widely acknowledged offering.

In Olympian Aron Robinson is joined by Justin Sheran. The duo’s music is not a stylistic departure from Paper Boats but is a distinct leap forward in sonic quality (remarkable given these delicately precise trio of songs were recorded in Justin’s front room). Olympian play nocturnal chamber pop songs that combine the downbeat compassion of fellow Mancunian bands I Am Kloot and Elbow with sparse, low-key arrangements. They are not as anguished or bitter as John Bramwell’s songs and don’t share the large-scale grandeur of Guy Garvey and co but instead have a softer, romantic fatalism to their late night tales of drunken fools, regrets and walking away.


‘Letting Go’ starts with just rippling piano, some Spanish acoustic guitar and flat voiced resignation – but from muted introspection through clever swells and surges it brings in a sense of rising hopefulness despite the fact “we never learn”. It is poised, moving and quite beautiful; and a lesson in how to make chamber orch-pop without the full-blown orchestrations. ‘Punched Out’ however does bring in the sweeping string section after a harder-edged intro – it’s a classy combination of beaten down misery and soaring, rich strings. From its strummed electric guitar opening ‘Change Will Come’ has a sense of cautious but determined forward motion. It’s still a quiet, reflective number but relatively it is the most animated and most quietly optimistic of these three home recordings.

In these their first publicly available songs Olympian appear a bit more demure than the ruthlessly determined titular athlete aiming for ‘faster, stronger, higher’. But in their own way these are gold medal performances. Ones to watch. Again.

Letting Go - Olympian by FollyOfYouth

Olympian Three Songs [DOWNLOAD]

LAZARUS AND THE PLANE CRASH Horseplay

You’d expect any album with a CD sleeve that folds out into a functional Ouija board to be obsessed with the paranormal or worshipping at the upside down altar of Norwegian black metal. However Lazarus And The Plane Crash are in neither camp – and appear more interested in a game of charades. “Horseplay” is the perfect title for this record, “a collision” between The Clerkenwell Kid aka Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld and The Guillotines' singer Joe Coles, bringing together the arch ‘antique beat’ of the former with some full-throated rock ‘n’ roll theatrics from the latter plus a good dollop of prankster pastiche.

The opening track kicks off proceedings brilliantly: the three and a half minute bombastic 'Edward-the-Confessor-wearing-pantaloons' lunacy of ‘King Of The Village Fete’. The video below is captioned “The Wickerman meets It’s A Knockabout” but musically this maypole mayhem is a head-battering blend of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Vivian Stanshall. Following breathlessly is ‘Mating Dance’: Nick Cave style self-questioning lacerations and sexual obsession over sped-up East European polka with an invitation to “boom, boom, boom / wiggle it up for me”. It also contains the genius that-explains-it-all couplet “maybe it’s just caffeine talking / But it’s you that I’m stalking”.



Both collaborators continue to undergo many metamorphoses in the nine tracks that follow: Jacques Brel accordion minstrelsy contemplating earth(l)y mortality (‘The Clay’s A Calling’), early Bowie glam art-pop theatrics (‘Deaf’) and single entendre dirty electro-blues holler (‘Naked and Nasty’). The latter is just plain disturbing and then reworked later as a brief, drawling, sludgy Iggy Pop croon (‘Nasty and Naked’). ‘Horn For The Whole Damn World’ is another signature moment for the pairing – scratchy ragtime jazz meets over-sexed Waitsian bellowing. Slap in the middle, the album detours into lush piano torch ballad for ‘Violent Men’ before careening off again of its madcap course. In the final stretch, the last two tracks run out of steam a little – or maybe it’s just that they are not so oddly or distinctively styled as earlier hyper-ventilated collisions?

Some might find the pastiche too cod (or even too codswallop) to bear; like being beaten over the head too many times by an insistent jester. But give in to its gutsy, whirlwind eccentricity and you should fall for most - if not all – of its inspired tomfoolery. Kings of The Village Fete indeed.

Mating Dance - Lazarus and the Plane Crash by FollyOfYouth

Lazarus and the Plane Crash Horseplay [BUY]

DEADWALL Four Songs By... EP

I was mightily impressed with Deadwall’s first recordings when I came across them last June. Since then the West Yorkshire five-piece - Thomas Gourley vocals/guitars, Christopher Duffin keyboards, Rob Simpson guitars, Tom McCartney bass and Guy Raimes on drums - have been in the studio and this month release their first EP ‘Four Songs By...’ on CD (or as free download). The four tracks keep what made the demos so intriguingly catchy but add an extra depth and polish to their indie-art-pop. Field Music and Mystery Jets might be useful comparisons but also XTC (check that opening guitar on lead track ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’). However Deadwall go much further than any of those bands in adding a fiery energetic drive to their cleverly constructed pop.


“I kept my counsel like a Russian” says ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’ but there is nothing reticent or demure about this propulsive, multipart, sub-3 minute opener - catchy, complex and perfectly formed, it’s the undisputed highlight of the EP for me. The mid-tempo ‘The Curse of the Black Widow’ opens with ornate piano motifs and falsetto vocals but layers in orchestral touches and humming harmonies – mysterious with elegant restraint. ‘Minus Two Words’ recaptures the forward momentum of ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’: guitars alternate between scratchy and chiming, it all bounced along by a pneumatic rhythm section. Oh and there’s still time in its 2.47 running time for a Hammond organ break. The closing song is the more introspective acoustic-leaning ‘Metropolis, Sort Of’ which has some lovely horn touches in its second half but I don’t find it as inventively memorable as the earlier songs. Even so it’s still way ahead of run-of-the-mill.

Deadwall’s arrangements may be complex, even prog-leaning, but their propulsive energy, to-the-point brevity and great pop hooks keep them from sagging under any pretension or over-elaboration (no doubt aided by some down-to-earth Yorkshire common-sense too). A highly recommended purchase when released via Bandcamp at the end of this month.

The Wakefield Questionnaire by deadwall

Deadwall Four Songs [BUY]

TEMPLE SONGS 15 Bygones

The album cover – B&W home photo of skinny figure in striped jersey and bowl hair-cut, set amongst large expanse of block colour - looks like one of those early Creation Records compilations where 80s indie looked back fondly to 60s beat. The song titles could neatly come from 90s sources – the fridge-magnet-poetry surrealism of Pavement (‘Milk Fad’) or say the loaded-with-meaning wordplay of Grandaddy (‘I’m Not A Weak Old Man, I’m A Week-Old Man’, ‘Perpetual Birthday’). And the 14 rough-cut recordings here skirt these sources - and many others, particularly noughties no-fi experimentalism – but to these ears sound most like strangely disembodied out-takes from Deerhunter, some rich with melody and shape, others fragmentary and abstract.

The debut, free-to-download Temple Songs album drifts between both states. Some tracks are little more than flimsy sketches (the lo-fi prelude of ‘Oh My’) or instrumental exercises in parody (the 50s swinging exotica of ‘Log Flume’ or the slowed down piano-and-clarinet jazz shuffle of ‘I’m Not A Weak Old Man, I’m A Week-Old Man’). Then there are the ‘proper’ songs. ‘Milk Fad’ is cautiously tinny Panda Bear homage to the Beach Boys meets jubilant, twanging guitars. ‘Jupiter’s Baby Body’ shares the same summery carefree charm with an infectious bass throb and balmy, shambling drums but again the warm melodies and energy are cloaked in thick murk. ‘I’m Better Than Brad Berwick’ adopts a different tack – an animated but strained electronic pulse dipped in whistling feedback with the album’s most animated - but equally hidden – vocals. Elsewhere there is the more pastoral ‘I’ll Write You A Song’ all sweet bubbly drift and fluttering drum machine beats, whilst ‘Jello Sky’ is abstract and mournfully introspective mumbling over distant, chiming synths, like Jason Lytle on downers at the bottom of a deep well.



I’m not sure whether the murky production is an aesthetic decision from Jolan Lewis (aka Temple Songs) or caused by hesitancy about the songs themselves. But there is plenty to admire tantalisingly behind the mire. Normally I’m not averse to the lo-fi and muddy but here I find the melody and the vocals too distant, too detached and want to hear both sing out. Best to think of ‘15 Bygones’ as an off-hand collection of demos from Bradford Cox – both the full band sound of Deerhunter through to the more abstract sound collages of his Atlas Sound moniker - intriguing sketches worth exploring in themselves. But fully realised they would be magnificent.

Jupiter's Baby Body - Temple Songs by FollyOfYouth

Temple Songs - A Bee or a Shark by Temple Songs

Temple Songs 15 Bygones [FREE]

HOODED FANG Tosta Mista

Listening to this record is like opening a sealed time-capsule from 1968. Inside are 10 perfectly preserved specimens of fuzzy garage-pop replete with heart-gladdening optimism and groovy beats. It’s fantastically fresh and immediate. True if you want more recent reference points, you can hear some of that languid Strokes NYC cool in the chug of ‘Brahma’ or the peppy summer sounds of The Drums in the surf-leaning ‘Vacationation’. But rather than diminishing returns retro-nostalgia, “Tosta Mista” feels like a genuine re-tread of garage rock year zero and the Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” collection. Hooded Fang manage to capture – not recreate - the sense of possibility, experimentation and fun of that era brilliantly.



Song lyrics can sound mock-profound and deeply allusive (“they call me Poncho / but I ain’t got no partner today“) but the whole package is an immediately accessible psychedelic pop triumph. Apparently it was written in the aftermath of the end of a five year relationship between singer/guitarist Daniel Lee and bassist April Aliermo but it sounds more delirious than despondent, more exuberant than exhausted by relationship woes.


It’s a brief album: seven songs proper with three Joe Meek-meets-noir soundtrack instrumental snatches between tracks but it doesn’t feel skimpy or slight. Even those three ‘Big Blue’ interludes sound like extracts from a larger, unrealised project. This album is the Toronto collective’s second after their self-released, Canada only “Album” in 2010 but their UK debut. It did make it to these shores at the end of last year but is now picked up by Full Time Hobby for a full UK release, out today. I hope the label hasn’t added any tracks to it – they’re not needed. Half the length of most albums but twice the psyche-pop fun.

Hooded Fang - ESP by fulltimehobby

Hooded Fang Tosta Mista [BUY]

THIS MANY BOYFRIENDS Starling

Following my first proper introduction to This Many Boyfriends supporting Allo Darlin’ recently, I’ve been playing catch up buying in quick succession their three releases: 2010’s “Getting A Life With...” EP, 2011’s “Young Lovers Go Pop!” single and this year’s two track single “Starling”. One of the tracks from that first EP (and the opening song of their set at the Deaf Institute) is a neat statement of intent: ‘I Don't Like You ('Cos You Don't Like The Pastels).’ For This Many Boyfriends side with that defiantly shambolic strain of indie-pop that can be traced back to The Television Personalities and then the name-checked Pastels. The earlier releases are a joyful clatter of “mildly talented, ferociously proud” (as ‘Trying Is Good’ would have it) lofi bubblegum pop. Melody and organisation creep in amongst the sugary spikiness, Northern vowel inflections and name-dropping of other bands, but randomly rather than in a linear progression as though polished sophistication was accidental rather than intended.


And so to ‘Starling’ released last month by the Leeds quartet as a fanzine with download code. It was recorded with their guitarist Pete Sykes who died suddenly last November of a brain haemorrhage. Lord knows what this did to the other four as individuals but all credit to them as a band for moving forward and be able to release this, in part a tribute to their friend. Both songs are slicker and tauter and more richly layered than earlier efforts. The title track is a two-and-a-half minute lean-and-fast rush of angular pop, sweetly-shrill guitar riffs and pattering drams, matching wonder and infatuation (“I think you have the soul of a new born”) with a single line chorus about living for a long time. The second half adds in an infectiously giddy ba-ba-bah-bah-ba-ba refrain which is so effective they repeat it on the following song ‘Just Saying’. This song continues if not ups the singalong poppiness of its companion finishing with a screamed denunciation of pet dislikes: “And I hate chillwave / and I hate witch house”.

This Many Boyfriends - 'Starling' by Angular Recording Co

Such petty denunciations, the hero worship roll calls and releasing your single as a hand-drawn fanzine (with “stories, recipes, pop quizzes and other lesser spotted sightings”) could all leave This Many Boyfriends as indistinguishable from the wheeling flock as the bird they sing of. But in the same way the band find beauty in said feathered friend (“I think you have the soul of a starling / so precious and careful and clean“) This Many Boyfriends have familiar but rare qualities – not least resilience – amongst their clutch of superior indie-pop songs. It’s been a rapid but fun conversion.

This Many Boyfriends Starling [BUY]

Open publication - Free publishing

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: March 2012 Pt.1

Nights are getting lighter and the months are getting busier for live music. Many, many great gigs over the next thirty-one days but highlighting just one night that has two bands on the mixtape below. Veronica Falls, whose excellent debut album was one of my Top Ten of 2011, return to Manchester on Friday 9 March with support from Novella, whose debut EP is out this month “with influences spanning the classic 4AD sound to Flying Nun to Brian Jonestown Massacres ‘Methodrone’ album”. Opening the bill is the much hyped (and in some quarters distastefully leered at) local band PINS.

As ever a mixtape [65 mins / 74 MB] of bands playing Manchester this March to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: March 2012 [65 mins / 74 MB]

Shrag Tights In August [3.35] (21 Mar The Castle BUY TICKETS)
The History of Apple Pie Tug [7.23] (30 March Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Gabriel & The Hounds The World Unfolds [10.02] (1 Mar Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
The Wave Pictures Little Surprise [12.47] (24 Mar Kings Arms BUY TICKETS)
Tall Firs Hairdo [16.12] (16 Mar Trof BUY TICKETS)
Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell Down In Adairsville [19.55] (18 Mar Cornerhouse BUY TICKETS)
Cass McCombs The Same Thing [26.04] (5 Mar Band on the Wall BUY TICKETS)
Shearwater Breaking The Yearlings [29.11] (31 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Veronica Falls Come On Over [33.44] (9 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
The Phenomenal Handclap Band 15 to 20 [38.31] (2 Mar Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
Memoryhouse The Kids Were Wrong [42.37] (26 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Diagrams Antelope [45.08] (15 Mar Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
Cold Bones No Need For Names [48.39] (3 Mar Big Hands BUY TICKETS)
Earth Divine and Bright [51.36] (7 Mar Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
So Many Wizards Nico [54.07] (10 Mar Roadhouse BUY TICKETS)
Novella Don’t Believe Ayn Rand [58.16] (9 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Lambchop Gone Tomorrow [65.15] (6 Mar Manchester Cathedral BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
1 Mar The Duke Spirit Ruby Lounge / 1 Mar Phantogram The Castle / 1 Mar Toy Horses Roadhouse / 1 Mar Bleeding Knees Club Trof / 1 Mar Little Dragon Academy 2 / 2 Mar Sex Hands, Sauna Youth + Human Hair Fuel / 2 Mar The Jezabels Ruby Lounge / 2 Mar Momus IABF / 2 Mar Soko Islington Mill / 2 Mar Sleigh Bells Sound Control / 2 Mar The Kabeedies Deaf Institute / 2 Mar Willis Earl Beal Trof Fallowfield / 3 Mar The Silver Seas Ruby Lounge / 3 Mar Monument Valley The Castle / 3 Mar Brown Brogues Soup Kitchen / 4 Mar Theme Park + The Cast of Cheers Deaf Institute / 5 Mar Three Trapped Tigers Ruby Lounge / 5 Mar Pale Seas The Castle / 5 Mar Mark Lanegan Academy / 6 Mar French Wives Dry Bar / 6 Mar Air Cav Kraak / 7 Mar Gang Colours The Castle / 8 Mar Alice Gold Ruby Lounge / 9 Mar Mayer Hawthorne Ruby Lounge / 9 Mar The Aristocats Night & Day / 9 Mar Halls Kraak / 10 Mar Portico Quartet RNCM / 11 Mar The Megaphonic Thrift Ruby Lounge / 12 Mar Cave Painting Trof Fallowfield / 13 Mar Xiu Xiu Ruby Lounge / 13 Mar Dog Is Dead Deaf Institute / 15 Mar Wu Lyf The Ritz / 15 Mar Kill It Kid Deaf Institute / 16 Mar Summer Camp Night & Day / 17 Mar John Head Ruby Lounge / 17 Mar Rook & The Ravens Night & Day / 18 Mar Felice Brothers Academy / 18 Mar The Slow Show Deaf Institute / 19 Mar Being There The Castle / 22 Mar Kindness Soup Kitchen / 23 Mar Driver Drive Faster Deaf Institute / 23 Mar Tanlines Night & Day / 24 Mar Jacuzzi Boys Kraak/ 25 Mar Spiritualized Academy / 26 Mar Last Harbour Band on the Wall / 26 Mar Los Campesinos Academy 3 / 26 Mar Feist + M. Ward Apollo / 27 Mar Victorian Dad Band on the Wall / 28 Mar The Doozer Night & Day / 29 Mar Breton Islington Mill / 29 Mar Blondes Soup Kitchen / 29 Mar Halo Halo Night & Day / 29 Mar Duologue The Castle / 29 Mar Strange Boys Deaf Institute / 30 Mar The ABC Club + Blessa Roadhouse / Frankfest with The Fall + The Lovely Eggs Jabez Clegg

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: March 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: March 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - March 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [64 mins / 74 MB] here.

FANFARLO + RACE HORSES @ STATIC GALLERY, LIVERPOOL 25 February 2012

My last encounter with Welsh wonders Race Horses was a cramped and rushed affair in the back room of The Castle following a 6Music session. Tonight's gig at Static Gallery (what's it like I asked, "a bit Islington Mill, a bit Tan Hill Inn barn" was the perfect and accurate response) was a bit rushed for band too - a swift set-up with minimal checking of sound levels following opening band Pixels. But from their near-faultless performance and the excellent sound, this clearly wasn’t a band feeling any pressure. In fact I think this was the best set I've seen from Race Horses: energetic, tight, sweaty and both fuzzy and ferocious in the excellent ‘My Year Abroad’ or sweetly melodic and playful in ‘Pony’ or ‘What Do I Have To Do’.







Four-fifths of the band (the male four-fifths) are all tall, gangly and looked a little - well - awkward setting up their kit on stage. But once the playing starts they move seamlessly between instruments and stage positions. And singer Meilyr becomes a magnetic front-person – electric-shock twitches whilst playing bass during ‘Grangetown 02920’, towering erect with eyes closed and singing direct into hand-held mic for the final section of 'Marged Wedi Blino' or kneeling on the concrete floor amongst the crowd to whack the hell out of a bass-drum for ‘See No Green’. The new songs – a bit raw and rough-at-the-edges last July - here sounded sharp, well-drilled and immense. Only question is when is album number two with these new songs on out?





The Race Horses Set List:

Furniture
Mince
Pony
Grangetown 02920
What Am I To Do
My Year Abroad
See No Green
Sisters
Marged Wedi Blino

My last live encounter with Fanfarlo was also after a 6music session, in November 2011 when they followed that recording with a set at the Deaf Institute. And guess what? The new songs that then sounded tentative and even a little rough-edged, tonight sounded slick, assured and sat beautifully alongside the re-arranged older songs.





The set started in near-darkness with ‘Replicate’ lit only by a red spotlight initially and occasional strobe flashes. As the set progressed, more sophisticated lighting was introduced plus video projections on to a hexicon-shaped screen at the rear of the stage. However this wasn’t what made this such a compelling performance. Again it was the excellent songs performed by the five-piece – the rhythm section sticking with bass and drums throughout but the multi-instrumentalist front-line of singer Simon Balthazar, Cathy Lucas and Leon Beck moving between guitar, keyboards, violin, trumpet, saxophone, bell – and the largest tambourine I’ve ever seen.



I had been playing new album “Rooms Filled With Light” fairly constantly all day, it slowly worming its way into my head and my affections. I don’t think it will supplant 2009’s "Reservoir" in my affections but the mixture of songs from both tonight in this modest-sized venue, with great sight lines and superior sound was an utter delight. Possibly gig of the year so far (despite some stiff competition already).





The Fanfarlo Set List:

Replicate
Tightrope
Feathers
I’m A Pilot
Lenslife
Comets
Deconstruction
Finishing Line
Atlas – A Flood
Luna
Dig
Shiny Things
Harold T Wilkins
---
Bones
The Walls Are Coming Down

Tonight was a Harvest Sun promotion and this joint tour has three more UK dates left before Fanfarlo head to the States.

ALLO DARLIN, THIS MANY BOYFRIENDS + STANDARD FARE @ DEAF INSTITUTE 23 February 2012

I’ve written about both Standard Fare albums on here plus run a Q&A with Emma and Dan in September 2010 but until tonight I had never seen them live. And despite the overdue nature of this encounter, I’m pleased to say the Sheffield-based trio did not disappoint. There’s a casual nonchalance to Standard Fare on stage – plainly dressed, nothing showy, no stage moves, no between song chat except putting down a brief moment of anti-Yorkshire sentiment – but as the nine song set progresses they subtly but surely up the aggression – and the shouting - on their spiky power-pop punch.



My only quibbles: no ‘Suitcase’ and no lighting. What is that strange ‘etiquette’ that forbids opening acts to have the same lighting state as following bands? To my mind, Standard Fare should not only have the spotlights but should be headlining venues this size. Sheer class.



This Many Boyfriends are another band I hadn’t seen previously live and only know via the odd song from compilations. But an opening song called ‘I Don’t Like You (‘Cos You Don’t Like The Pastels)’ and a new song called ‘Tina Weymouth’ instantly endear the Leeds-based four piece to me. This Many Boyfriends could almost be a walking indie-pop cliché: said Pastels reference, a song about being bullied at school and a new single released as a fanzine. But there’s a punkish energy, a we’re-uncool-but-we’re-going-to-enjoy-ourselves-anyway vibe and great deadpan Beat Happening/Moe Tucker drumming behind it all that for me was a winning recipe. This was their first gig since November – and only five months since the tragic death of band mate Peter Sykes – but it all felt positively fresh and upbeat. Two singles bought, I await the album eagerly.



Now Allo Darlin’ are a much more familiar prospect live and on record but tonight they are touring their new album “Europe” which is not out until May. But lack of familiarity is no barrier to enjoying their excellent set – six new songs plus older favourites. They open with current single ‘Capricornia’ which still delivers on its promise to sound “somewhere between 'A New England' by Kirsty MacColl and 'Cattle and Cane' by The Go-Betweens”. Other new songs are more subdued or reflective like the quiet, almost acoustic ‘Some People Say’ which contrasts with the bouncy energy of ‘The Polaroid Song’ or ‘Dreaming’ but the smart song-writing still shines through.





Three-quarters of Allo Darlin’ maintain the dress-down, no frills casualness of this evening. But Elizabeth Morris is a world apart, an unassuming but magnetic front-person in short black dress and Doc Martens who can switch between the skipping joy of ‘Kiss Your Lips’ (here added in before final song ‘ Heart Like A Drummer’) and the heart-breaking, closed-eye stillness of Go-Betweens cover ‘Dive For Your Memory’. I’ve seen Allo Darlin’ consistently livelier on stage before night but as the enthusiastic cheers seemed to agree, as the breadth of their song-writing expands they can still maintain the assured quality. ‘Indiepop’ can be a dead-end street of a tag but tonight showed three very different takes on how vital and smart and varied it can be.

FIRE ISLAND PINES Rickie Lee Jones

The cover artwork for the second release from Fire Island Pines portrays that idealised picture postcard glamour of hotel life in Post-War America, before the optimism – and the short-lived opulence – faded. The band name also turns out to be an upstate and upmarket New York holiday resort. But the six-piece are in fact from Cornwall. And rather than living - or vilifying - the American Dream, Fire Island Pines are instead maintaining some very British traditions.

‘Oh Therese’ perfectly demonstrates this is a limber two minutes: the shy sophisticate sensitivity of Felt meets the swoon of early Postcard jangle as covered by a wet-behind-the-ears Tindersticks with some lovely muted trumpet. (The Stuart Staples comparison is also found in the faltering anguish of third track ‘I Was A Runaway’). ‘Carpathian Elegy’ extends this in a more leisurely manner reminding me of lighter moments of The Pale Fountains: sunshine pop guitar jangle tinged with brittle regret. Final track ‘Rickie Lee Jones’, all finger-clicking bounce and sway, delicately recounts an fixated encounter with one of the eponymous singer’s albums in a second-hand record shop (“in 2003”). It is sung with the soulful croon of young Edwyn Collins but so bashfully done it refuses to look you in the eye. From here return to the opening track and you realise just how (relatively) confident and upfront ‘Oh Therese’ is.

I hope I don’t make this EP sound overly inhibited or retrograde. Fire Island Pines may know their indie-pop lineage but are never in thrall to it. And yes they maybe softly reticent but they have also turned in a bittersweet gem, opulent and optimistic in its own neatly formed way.

Oh Therese by Fire Island Pines

Rickie Lee Jones by Fire Island Pines

Fire Island Pines Rickie Lee Jones [BUY]

RANDOLPH'S LEAP The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones

Listen to any of the songs on this 15 track release and it is no surprise to discover it was recorded in singer Adam Ross’s bedroom. It has a casual, no-frills feel: the drums (when they feature) are tinny and up-close-loud with the sweetly fragile vocals placed shyly further back. You cannot help but picture the band cosily huddled around a single microphone (and probably an unmade single bed too). What does come as a surprise is discovering that Ross’s band Randolph’s Leap actually numbers eight members in total - for the stripped-bare acoustic folk-pop on “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” sounds more a solo turn accompanied by occasional recorder. And it turns out many are: “the rest of the band don't feature much, but at least I don't have to share the profits with that miserable rabble".


There’s a curious decade-spanning feeling to these homespun tunes. Sometimes, a trad Scots folk take on 60s coffee-house folk revivalism permeates the broken spirit laments of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ or ‘Cassie O’Tone’ with quietly strummed guitar and mournfully triumphant fiddle. At other times, a 30s comic ballad whimsy takes hold, like when Woody Guthrie dropped the politics and anger and penned childish rhyming ditties, in songs like ’Dying In My Sleep’ or ‘The Will To Shave’ – the former about “my long term plans....a distant goal but one I’ll share / I’m dying in my sleep / at the age of 103”. Elsewhere there’s a happy-go-lucky naiveté and unspoiled simplicity to ‘The Nonsense In My Soul’ like King Creosote at his most spartan and softly melodic. To wrong foot the listener there’s also the console game sound effect interludes ‘Level One’ and ‘Level Two’ plus the neon cover artwork to interject some garish 80s references. ‘Bile’ is the moment when you feel there really is eight people crammed into that bedroom and the frugal alt-folk switches to distorted casio-fuzz pop.

For all its rudimentary recording properties and suggestions of whimsy or simplicity, “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” is a direct and deeply affecting record. The emotions – whether playful or serious – are honest and open and engaging. The closing song ‘Suitable’ softly asserts “you make me feel wonderful”. This is a heart-lifting and off-the-cuff collection of songs that has the same effect. It’s available now digitally or on limited edition cassette tape on Peenko Records.

 Randolph's Leap - The Nonsense In My Soul by peenko

Randolph’s Leap The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones [BUY]

SEX HANDS Season 1

The ‘zine quality, single colour cover with grinning skulls pasted on to heads of the cast of “Friends” suggests diehard DIY movement. Then the music of Sex Hands confirms it or rather screams it: clanging guitars, sludgy drums, distorted, shouted vocals are all lost in the murky, head-pummelling noise. Everything about “Season 1” suggests hastily assembled cassette release home recording. It was in fact “recorded by Patrick Crane in 2011” - but clearly with the aim of capturing raw abrasiveness rather than nuanced sonic clarity - and is released at name-your-price via Bandcamp (“it’s fine to put zero in there - we won’t judge ya”). There is melody and jangle and more here too – plus a cover of New Zealand’s The Clean – but all lies shrouded in various shades of no-fi murk.

‘Parker’ yokes a hippy-trippy 60s freak-beat swing to garage-rock bludgeon. In ‘Janice’ math-rock churn with a hint of warped Beefheart blues sits under barked tannoy announcement vocals - but sludgy no-fi wins out again. There is a melodic chug to ‘Jingle Bitch’ despite the wailing vocal despair but again more of that sludgy no-fi. The band claim “these are songs about Joey, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe”. ‘Rembrandts’ with its “I’ll be there for you” vocal refrain is the most explicit reference despite sounding filled with bleak desperation rather than the cosy unity of the show’s theme music but other than these fleeting references or character names as song titles I really can’t hear this. But the angry, head-pounding caterwaul of Sex Hands is exactly the reaction I have to the smugness of that long-running TV series so maybe there’s a deeper truth at work here.

The latter half of this eight track mini-album has less impact as the rickety punk flail becomes familiar or when the instrumental shredding guitar duelling of ‘Jam Sandwich’ stretches itself too thin. It finishes with the surprisingly almost-triumphant, quasi-indie-rock swagger (still buried in no-fi murk) of ‘The Moist Maker’. It’s a closing statement that makes you want to punch the air rather than say punch the faces of the cast of a US TV show. “Season 1” is over in 27 minutes but is one series that has episodes definitely worth re-running. The next live outing for Sex Hands is Sunday 19 February on a seven band bill of fellow-travellers from Manchester and beyond with Pheromoans headlining. Kicks off at 5pm with tickets just £4 in advance.


Parker by SEX HANDS

Sex Hands Season 1 [BUY]

ROB ST JOHN Weald

Rob St John is one quarter of Edinburgh’s anti-drum core (but wavering) post-folk ensemble eagleowl. But his own music is a very different strain of alt-folk to that of the full group. “Weald”, his debut album for Song By Toad Records, is eight songs of darkly atmospheric and steady-paced freak-folk exploring the “imagined contour between the bleak Lancastrian moors and the cobbled wynds of Edinburgh”. Like David Thomas Broughton fronting Mount Eerie or Alexander Tucker conducting a psycho-geographical field study.

Songs vary from 2.5 minutes to over 7 minutes but all conform to a similar pattern: opening with roving, liquid golden electric guitar notes, gently droning harmonium and St John’s deep booming voice before adding in denser layers of sound and instruments – bowed saw in ‘Vanishing Points’, haunted, distant piano in ‘An Empty House’, violin in ‘Stainforth Force’ and even underwater hydrophone in the same song. Picking out individual instruments doesn’t convey the combined effect of layered textures that swell and contract, making the album sound cavernous despite a lingering intimacy.



Throughout Rob St John’s voice is peculiarly astonishing: blunt Lancastrian tones that spill and surprise and waver like his guitar, sometimes a deep bottomless pit boom as forceful as granite, other times a darkly forgiving sigh. It’s a voice that speaks of years of experience ruminating on eternal mysteries – extraordinary then that Rob St John is in his early twenties. The graceful beauty of the seven-minute ‘Stainforth Force’ is the epic midpoint of the album (or opener of side two if you buy the vinyl) but ‘Domino’ that follows usurps its centrality by notching up the intensity with a bleak prison-irons clanking tale of guilt, cross words and cold beds. It’s so anguished and intense, ‘Emma’s Dance’ the sprightly Bert Jansch-like instrumental that follows is blessed relief. “Weald” is an album rich with a thick, marshy atmosphere but proves a rewarding and uplifting journey. The record came out last November and I paid it scant attention until earlier this year. What a terrible disservice to an exceptional recording.

Rob St. John - Sargasso Sea by Song, by Toad

Rob St John Weald [BUY]