SoundsXP.com - indie, folk and alt-country reviews

Andrew Morgan: As Long As We Are Together EP

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:16:53 PST

There doesn’t seem to be a standard length for an EP these days (compared to when it were all fields round here…) but there’s little to complain about with this 8 track, 23 minute offering from Andrew Morgan. It’s just one man but he paints sprawling canvasses filled with ornate chamber pop and romantic dreams. The title track gestures to Elliott Smith, but would sit perfectly alongside the wistful pop of the Real Tuesday Weld, while ‘Always In Dreams’ is beautifully crafted pop with sighing violin and drums beating in waltz time. He sums it up best himself on ‘Who Ever Knew’: “whoever knew/ that something so normal could be so magical?”

The Broken Family Band Garage gig

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:07:32 PST

The Broken Family Band formed in 2001 and we saw them many times in 2002 in some combination of the Windmill, the Arts Café and the Spitz. Then we followed them as they played the 100 Club, Cargo, the Scala and eventually Koko, overcoming our dislike of bigger venues to see how they fared (rather well actually). Some of us must have seen them maybe 30 or 40 times in total over the years. We caught them at festivals, interviewed them twice and even promoted a gig at work in 2004 where they managed to charm the scariest barmaid who ever lived (Annie Wilkes from ‘Misery’ crossed with a grumpy rottweiler) into plying them with free Belgian beer all night. Hell, we even knew Steven Adams when he was American. Now a number of us are present for their final London show before the band calls it a day on Halloween.

The set’s a long one, featuring songs from their first record to their last, from the Snowstorm days, through the Track and Field era to Cooking Vinyl; from ‘Queen of the Sea’ by way of ‘Song About Robots’ (what they think of as the archetypal TBFB song), ‘At the Back of the Chapel’, ‘The Booze and the Drugs’, ‘Walking Back to Jesus Part 2’, ‘A Place You Deserve’ and ‘Salivating’. Shit, just writing those titles out makes you realise how good a group the Broken Family Band have become while a song like the intricate ‘Devil in the Detail’ proves how fine a songwriter Steven Adams has always been.

There’s a tinge of sorrow but little room for disappointment tonight (the absence of ‘Mother o’Jesus’ is my only regret) and it’s like we’re stocking up on all the Broken Family Band we’ll need once they’re gone. Humour is much in evidence, Jay Williams calling for a show of hands of those who prefer their country phase and flipping them the finger when he receives it. Meanwhile Steve Adams typically changes the words to ‘(I Don’t Have Time To) Mess Around’ to its filthiest, RSPCA-baiting form yet. They resurrect long-time collaborator Tim Victor (sporting his worst haircut in a history of frightful barnetry) for a folky section, including their great cover of ‘Daisies’, and then with encores of ‘John Belushi’ and ‘Don’t Leave That Woman Unattended’ (respectively one of their best and definitely their worst songs) they reluctantly leave the stage for the last time. I don’t care that the last shows are in Cambridge; they’re not a Cambridge band. They were a constant London presence and pleasure for 8 years and the capital will be a little colder, duller and less profane without them. Now, for real, it’s all over.

The Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:50:16 PST

Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong

We should have reviewed this a month ago but at the time I was wandering through Italian olive groves, thinking of the organic ‘slow food’ to come that night, and the Vivian Girls on my iPod sounded too harsh and urban for those bucolic surroundings. Once I arrived back in London, to dirt, stress and fast food, then it all started to fit into place again.

Everything Goes Wrong is a better album than the self-titled debut. In a series of 13 mostly short songs, totalling just 31 minutes, they expertly mix punk-pop with a 60s girl group feel. There’s a common approach to many of these songs: taut and driven by furiously pounded drums, with a gleaming melody shining out of a forest of guitars. ‘When I’m Gone’ in particular is a supernova of fuzzy energy while ‘Before I Start To Cry’ grinds it out at half speed. In best girl group fashion, broken hearts and women scorned are common themes, from the scads of guitar colouring the bubblegum ‘You’re My Guy’ to the harmony soaked early rock’n’roll rhythms in ‘Double Vision’ lamenting: “he has another woman/ you’ll never be the best”. It’s dramatic, edgy and relentlessly rhythmic pop music, and yet another brilliant Brooklyn record.

Filthy Little Angels to release back catalogue for free

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:26:35 PST

Those kind folk at Filthy Little Angels are giving away most of their back catalogue away free as some sort of bizarre act of generosity, normally associated with ruddy faced fellas dressed all in red. The material will be available in phases and each mp3 for only seven days so be quick, be nimble, er, etc.

With tradition firmly adhered to, they are starting at the beginning with:

FILTHY001 - Singles Club 7" One
A1 The Favours - Kill
A2 The Favours - Out Of Control
B1 The International Karate Plus - Nexus In A Chain Of Thought
B2 The International Karate Plus - Hats Off To Harry Kewell

Get it now from here

Dr Slaggleberry The Slagg Factory EP Review

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:48:29 PST

Dr Slaggleberry make music of sorts – apparently it’s a new genre, ‘Math Metal’. Or so I’ve read anyway. Whatever. ‘The Slagg Factory’ consists of 5 tracks of Heavy Metal instrumentals, all played with an aversion to 4/4 time and constraints of traditional ‘song’ writing. Played, however, competently and accurately, with decent production to boot. There’s little point in analysing each one individually, save to say that before a gentle evening’s self-mutilation ‘Grades Of Filth’ might be one’s preferred track of choice, whereas ‘Bastard Brew’ could well work best in preparing one mentally before striding off to school, with a pump-action shotgun concealed down the arm of one’s black leather greatcoat, and a mental note of every teacher and student that has contributed to this outcome. Every girl. Especially the girls…

The Raveonettes - The Chosen One Free MP3

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:44:40 PST

Today's free MP3 is by our old faves the Raveonettes and the track The Chosen One

Nancy Elizabeth Wrought Iron

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:45:53 PST

Nancy Elizabeth - Wrought Iron

I ramble a lot. Whilst this may not seem much of a revelation to anyone who’s read my reviews before, I actually mean in the striding out in the country sense, rather than the boring people to tears way. In fact, people have been known to call me a massive walker. Well, at least I think that’s what they were saying.

Judging by the writing process of this sophomore offering from Lancashire lass Nancy Elizabeth, she seems to share my love of getting away from city life now and again. The tracks on ‘Wrought Iron’ were conceived firmly off the beaten track in the Faroe Islands, rural Spain and the Lake District, and the album’s two wordless pieces Cairns and Cat Bells are named after the welcome walking way marker and the famous Lakeland fell respectively.

Peace and quiet pervade the mood, with Nancy Elizabeth eschewing the harp of her earlier recordings in favour of a piano-led musical palette which also features guitar, glockenspiel, vibraphone and an ancient Dulcitone, all played by the singer herself. This solitude and silence approach is best demonstrated on the majestic but minimal Ruins, which begins with piano notes which arrive with the frequency of your average postman these days. It eventually builds to an almost funereal pace before being washed away by a torrential downpour in the last verse.

There’s clearly been trouble at’ mill in the personal life of this native northern soul though, and the record’s title reflects the fact that purity and strength can be forged from adversity. “There’s only two doors open; to die or to fight” she rallies on Bring On The Hurricane, which reaches an appositely stormy climax compared to the pastoral peace around it.

Other high points to the album include the restrained trumpet and hand claps on the lovely Lay Low and the loose guitar strumming and bluesy railroad harmonica tones on the Cat Power-esque The Act. As befitting an album influenced by Wainwright country, ‘Wrought Iron’ contains an awful lot of peaks and has outstanding natural beauty running right through it. And you don’t even need hiking boots to enjoy it.

Pants Yell! - Cold Hands Free MP3

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:54:58 PST

Today's free MP3 is the gentle pop of Pant Yell! and Cold Hands

Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be review

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:05:59 PST

Devendra Banhart

Before listening to this latest album, I had developed a semi-irrational fear/hatred of Devendra Banhart which had led me to avoid his more recent output. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, there is the fact that he looks a lot like Charles Manson. Secondly, his early work sounds not dissimilar to Charles Manson's, which is not in itself a bad thing, but paired with the physical similarity is a little scary. Thirdly, he used to go out with Natalie Portman (whom I one day plan to make my wife) and due to his aforementioned resemblance to Charles Manson and the fact he was clearly punching above his weight, I couldn't help but think he was exerting some sort of sinister Manson-like mind control over her!

I suppose the most important reason for my dislike, was that I felt his early albums took the audience for granted by presenting them with 20 odd tracks of standard man-with-an-acoustic-guitar arrangements. There needed to be something else and a Mark Bolan impression and some freaky-deaky lyrics didn't cut it for me.

If there is a problem with What Will We Be it is of quite the opposite nature. At a mere 14 tracks (ahem), the album is heaving with musical ideas and styles; Angelika moves from Tea for the Tillerman era Cat Stevens to grimy latin jazz, Foolin' is a cheery little ska number and Baby sounds like Vampire Weekend's brand of pseudo-soukous. My personal highlight is the opener, the appropriately named Can't Help But Smiling which sounds like a slowed down version of In the Summertime by Mungo Jerry, complete with playfully staccato piano line and unapologetically optimistic lyrics.

As is suggested in the homage paid in 16th Valencia & Roxy Music, love is the drug of this album and helps bring together a diverse selection of tracks into a coherent and satisfying whole. What Will We Be is a pleasure from start to finish and I no longer find Devendra Banhart quite so scary.

Little Girls - Growing Free MP3

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:45:31 PST

Today's free MP3 is fuzzy dreampop from Toronto's Little Girls and Greowing

Old Canes - Feral Harmonic review

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:25:14 PST

Old Canes - Feral Harmonic

Old Canes are a Kansas collective, with numbers varying from 4 to 9 depending on who’s taken time out from their other bands. They’ve clearly not met up too often though as this is only their second album in 7 years. One of the first things that hits you is the interesting production, with the vocals slightly muddy and pushed back into the mix. Apparently the percussion was laid down first and then tracks built around the resulting rhythms. Inevitably under the circumstances it often feels like they are centre stage, hogging proceedings, driving forward with the guitars and banjos battling to keep up with the enthusiastic pacesetter. However it still makes for most entertaining listening and the highlight track, Little Bird Courage, will inevitably pop up on an advert; a huge hook, euphoric call and response delivered chorus and the inevitable manic drums joined by chimes and brass. It’s a simply wonderful four minutes of uplifting pop and deserves far greater exposure. Fortunately, the rest of the album is highly enjoyable too, with Elephant 6 indie psych/folk influences (particularly Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane over the Sea) mingling with moments of wistful Americana. Excellent stuff and well worth the wait. Let’s just hope Old Canes stick with it...

Hup! Hup! Hup! The Wonder Stuff mark 20th anniversary

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:57:46 PST

The Wonder Stuff celebrate the 20th anniversary of their second album Hup by playing it in its entirety at their Birmingham O2 Homecoming show on 17th December. They'll also be performing other songs from around the time. Support for the night has not been announced yet.

Camera Obscura @ Komedia Brighton review

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:49:54 PST

Camera Obscura

Riddled with drugs deaths, alcohol abuse and sexually transmitted infections, it’s no wonder bands flock to Brighton. But not so Camera Obscura. They are here to see if they can rediscover the virtuous circle of love between band, music and audience that defined their last visit in 2007. Still basking in that afterglow Tracyanne was ebullient as she flounced on stage. Yes, Tracyanne. Flounced. Big smiles, words tumbling forth about high expectations. Yet a muddy opening with My Maudlin Career, followed by a clammy Swans had Tracyanne ruefully commenting ‘Well, it is a comedy club’. By the end of the third song the dark clouds had gathered. Tracyanne slowly but inexorably retracting into her shell. As the night wore on it looked so painful; she seemed so vulnerable. She twiddled distractedly with her earpiece; first in, then out, then back in, then... head down, mumbled ‘thank you’s’ and uncomfortable silences. Some in the crowd shuffled uneasily, waiting for ‘something to happen’. For me it was witnessing the agony of a genius struggling to play lead in all its visceral horror. When she has it bad, Tracyanne must be the most ill at ease front person I have ever witnessed. This is double the pain, given the pulchritudinous songs she writes.

When some write about Camera Obscura live they seem fixated on a lack of ‘smiles’. Ironic that people who condemn being judged through a viewfinder of ‘twee’ cardigans and hair slides should choose to judge the quality of Camera Obscura by how ‘happy they appear’ on stage. No one complained about Lydon or Brown not smiling. Tracyanne sings about love, lust, fear and rejection for Christ sake. Perhaps there isn’t much to smile about when bassist Gavin looks like he’s done a 10 stretch for killing someone in a Glasgow pub brawl. Bless, he didn’t even get a mike. And it was difficult for Tracyanne’s tender voice to cope with the 60’s wall of sound evidenced in the last two albums and the main content of tonight’s performance. Thank god for the love of keyboard player Carey, who smiled, laughed and gainfully tried to envelope Tracyanne through her emotional frailty.

Tracyanne’s smile is like a precious stone. A thing of rare beauty. And finally, two songs from the end, it lit up the stage. Out of nowhere Tracyanne connected with a group of dancers on her left; Lloyd, I’m ready to be Heartbroken fizzed and crackled as a result. Tracyanne was thrilled, abashed and amused all at once. She beamed whilst band and audience relaxed. Camera Obscura followed this up with a bone shaking If looks could kill only to leave us just as we were connecting. Thankfully they returned. Tracyanne was in the zone now, mocking the crowd for calling out the names of ‘old songs’ – Eighties Fan was the only song played from the first two albums - and playfully lambasting her band for ignoring our plaintive cries. James was tender and bittersweet, and then the signature Razzle Dazzle Rose and it was over.

Camera Obscura is an enigma. On vinyl they have honed a sound that renders them the finest proponents of female led melancholic pop in a generation. The latest album is quite magnificent. Live it can sometimes feel like being invited to watch someone unravel on stage, for your viewing pleasure.

Christmas EP and London date for Slow Club

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:01:11 PST

Slow Club

Slow Club have announced details of a Christmas single plus a new London headline date. Dropping down our musical chimneys on 14th December, ‘Christmas, Thanks For Nothing’ is released on Moshi Moshi Records. A couple of days later, Slow Club will headline the Union Chapel on the 17th December.

Rebecca and Charles take turns recreating two Darlene Love Christmas classics. Charles delivering a stripped down take on ‘All Alone On Christmas’ – the E Street Band assisted number from 'Home Alone 2' – while Rebecca unleashes a full throated rendition of the Phil Spector penned ‘Christmas (Please Come Home)’.

Last year’s free download single ‘Christmas TV’ proved an unlikely live favourite this summer, and is included here as an added stocking filler, alongside brand new tunes ‘Christmas, Thanks For Nothing’ and ‘It’s Christmas and You Are Boring Me’.

Slow Club’s show at the Union Chapel on 17th December, will be the second time the duo have celebrated the festive season in such fashion - having sold out the venue in December last year.

Tickets for the Union Chapel are priced £11.50, on sale now and available from: LiveNation

Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus Free MP3

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:03:39 PST

Today's free MP3 is an oldie but goodie from Titus Andronicus and their raucous track, imaginatively titled, Titus Andronicus

Mumford and Sons - Sigh no more album review

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:57:51 PST

Mumford and Sons - Sigh no more

Mumford and Sons are another folk band from the incestuous London scene that has spawned Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale. Marling's former drummer Marcus Mumford is the focal point here with his rasping gravel dashed voice adding an emotional charge to their anthemic material but it’s no one man show as major parts of the appeal lie with the band’s ability to deliver four man harmonies over the layered orchestral musicianship. It’s nearly a great formula that delivers by the bucketload for the stronger songs that constitute the first two thirds of the album as earnest balladry sits side by side with pace switching banjo driven stop/start stompers. Dipped into, it stirs and shakes like a mighty pop blender but if there must be a criticism, it’s that as the lyrics transfer to the polar extremes of emotions, love and hate, lust and contempt, it can be hard work in one sitting. Yes, it all suits Mumford’s voice but by heck, it could do with just a smidgen of whimsy or a modicum of genial lyrical buffoonery to allow the listener a brief respite from an intense passionate buffeting. Still, that aside, it’s proved to be almost as good as the live shows promised… just be prepared for your lugs to be kicked and caressed in equal measure during it...

White Rabbits - Percussion Gun Free MP3

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:52:37 PST

Today's free MP3 is percussion heavy indie by White Rabbits and the track Percussion Gun

Times New Viking: Born Again Revisited

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:13:09 PST

Times New Viking: Born Again Revisited

Matador's claim that the band had promised "25% higher fidelity" isn't really borne out by the scratchy lo-fi but still vitally energised recordings on this, TNV’s fourth album (following two on Siltbreeze and Rip It Up, their first for Matador). According to the press release, the masters were delivered on VHS tape – for Rip It Up, on cassette – and from the level of hiss it sounds like one that has been used to re-record every episode of Friends. But the music is more sophisticated than the crude descriptions of “shitcore” that attach to the band; they purposely lower the fi and surround the music’s melodic pop core with layers of mud and fuzz.

Although the vocals are pretty indecipherable apart from Beth Murphy’s on ‘Those Days’, you’re constantly reminded that there’s a tune in there, from the choppy rhythms of ‘Something More’ to the scratch-pop of ‘City On Drugs’. The only influence that the band acknowledges on their Myspace page is The Shaggs but I hear a punky pop reminiscent of Subway Sect while the fantastic cheap sounding organ on ‘Half Day In Hell’ sounds like an early version of the Fall with its Fall-like title to match. On first introduction, it feels like you’re hearing the music through a heavy head cold but persevere and it starts to spit out diamonds.

Frankie Rose: Thee Only One

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:08:35 PST
Ex-member of Shitstorm and the Vivian Girls, current member of Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose is ground zero for all musical good things to come out of Brooklyn. When I add that her solo single was recorded by Gary Olsen at Marlborough Farms and features Kyle Forrester and JB Townsend of Crystal Stilts, there are so many plus points in the first 50 words of this review that the single can’t fail to woo us – and doesn’t. ‘Thee Only One’ is fast, punky and heavy on the reverb but there’s less fuzz, more pop, combining a 60s girl group feel with a touch of Cramps-style wickedness. In contrast, ‘Hollow Life’ is spacey psychedelia, a ghostly organ droning as if playing in a deconsecrated church. She’s managed to modify her style from band to band without losing what makes it so distinctive, which is why this is so good.

The Fresh & Onlys: Grey Eyed Girls

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:06:23 PST

Fresh and Onlys: Grey-Eyed Girls

The Fresh & Onlys, a five piece from San Francisco, are the latest in a line of lo-fi, primal rock’n’roll bands on Woodsist Records. This time the band’s USP is a sound that mixes garage-rock (the stinging fuzz of ‘Black Coffin’) and psych-pop from an outfit that has worked with Skygreen Leopards and Papercuts among others. You can group them with peers like Wavves and Crystal Stilts (the scuzz of the former, the dark tones of the latter) but I’d also liken them to The Wipers and Richard Hell. The speeding guitars of ‘Invisible Forces’ are reminiscent of the Wipers’ psychedelic reaction while there’s something of Hell’s poetic punk swagger in ‘Dude’s Got A Tender Heart’.

Unlike some of their contemporaries, they know how to mix up the styles. The short and wonderfully naïve ‘I’m Gonna Be Your Elevator’ combines Jonathan Richman and early Blondie in a primitive rock’n’roll chant; while, in contrast to every other track, ‘The Delusion of Man’ releases the beast for nearly seven minutes of epic garage-rock full of pulverising drumming and sawing guitars to end the album. There’s room for humour too, especially on the celebration of coulrophobia that is ‘Clowns (Took My Baby Away)’. It’s not the deepest listen (you need the Mountain Goats’ newie if you want to chew over your music) but it is a half hour of unalloyed and slightly skewed tie-dyed pleasure. Essential if you want the best of the new American underground.

Bite Harder: The De Wolfe Studio Sampler Volume 2

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:03:55 PST

Bite Harder: De Wolfe Studio Sampler

De Wolfe Studio’s library music has been a staple of film and TV for decades (the Sweeney, Dr Who, Vision On gallery music, to name a few) and is heavily bootlegged to satisfy the appetites of samplers. The first legit collection, Bite Hard, was released 10 years ago and Bite Harder is the first in a new series of library music releases to cater for the demand of obsessives like Jerry Dammers. There’s a mix of action and mood music, from psych-blues to funky soul to Afro-rock, all very dynamic and ready to be dropped into the middle of some 70s dramatic serial or song (tracks have already been sampled by the likes of Kool G Rap). I doubt it has lasting interest to the sampling atheist but the crate diggers will be creaming themselves.

Animal Hospital interview

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:37:57 PST

Kevin Micka is the one man multi-instrumental wizard Animal Hospital. The Boston based musician is currently on an extensive European tour and he headlines The Macbeth in London on 3rd November. I manage to steal a few moments of Kevin's time in France to ask him some questions:

SoundsXP: How does it differ being a solo artist rather than being part of a band? do you prefer it? ever get lonely?

I prefer it some ways in that it allows me a different type of creativity and flexibility. It all evolved out of those two things; wanting to tour more and have a different type of project that might force me to be more creative in my execution of ideas and performance. I don't really get too lonely, I see someone I know every couple of days on tour and driving doesn't bother me as it's good alone time for me sometimes. I do like the communal aspect of playing with friends and I think I prefer that in a less serious situation without the concerns of touring and organizing all the less fun aspects of playing music.

SoundsXP: You've released two albums this year which is very prolific of you! one on Barge Records and the other on Mutable Sound, how did they come about?

Memory on Barge took about 2 or 3 years and for the most part it was a work in progress the whole time. Good or Plenty, Streets and Avenues came when there were lulls in the work I was doing on Memory, so I could take a break and make some potentially less deliberate and serious music. I hope to find some kind of middle ground in the future. It is hard to tell which process is more beneficial.

SoundsXP: You're stuck in hospital for 6 months, it's nothing serious don't worry, what 5 albums would you take to listen to?

Hammerhead - Into the Vortex
Beach House - Devotion
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Loscil - Plume
The Great Redneck Hope - Behold the Fuck Thunder

SoundsXP: Rolf Harris had a TV series called Animal Hospital, if you had a TV show what would it be about?

It would be heavily influenced by James Burke. Perhaps a history, electronics repair and live music show, maybe a bit a of a Jools Holland type show with and educational aspect to it.

SoundsXP: Apart from being a musician you're also an actor, producer and sound engineer. What's your favourite platform?

Ha ha! I 'acted' in a friend's film a few years back but that is about it on the acting front. Most of my regular platfroms in life involve music so I an pretty happy with that. Overall playing and creating music makes me the most content with life.

SoundsXP: You've toured over many continents. Do you enjoy the immense travelling or does it ever get tiresome?

Sometimes, I would say it wears me out mostly when it takes time away from writing and recording new music. That and flying, but other than that I like it very much. I don't really know how to travel any other way.

SoundsXP: The Jesus lizard can walk on water, do you have any unique atributes, other than playing loads of instruments at the same time on stage?

Hmmmm.... Yeah, I am still trying to decide on what to do to compete when I play with them(Jesus Lizard the band not the animal of the same name; Animal Hospital have an imminent support tour with the band). A friend suggested I take my dick out during the show.

SoundsXP: Your stage show relies heavily on electronics and effects pedals, what do you do when the technology goes wrong?

It is so ingrained in me at this point to worry about this and I also work as a repair technician. I usually have some back up plans for when things go wrong. Doing this for 5 years has also helped me to handle and process the unexpected quick enough to work with it on stage... sometimes at least. I also try to take as good care of my stuff as i can and bring extra cables.

SoundsXP: Are there any new bands you're fond of?

I am still living in a bubble. I need to work on that some more to get out of it. I keep looking further back than ahead at the moment in regards to what I listen to. Beach House and the Bower Birds are two of the only records I've I bought this year.

New band for Caroline and Darren (ex-Manhatten Love Suicides)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:25:42 PST
Darren and Caroline have formed The Blanche Hudson Weekend from the ashes of The Manhattan Love Suicides and have a debut 7" single coming soon (23rd November) on Squirrel Records. The release is limited to 500 copies and features:

1. Crying Shame
2. The Last Ride
3. Noise And Fury

Expect more of their trademark fuzzy genius.

Two Slumberland albums lined up

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:18:20 PST
Indiepop legends Slumberland records have two new albums lined up for forthcoming release, Brilliant Color's ‘Introducing’ and Pants Yell!’s ‘Received Pronunciation’ for December 7th 2009.

The press release gives some more info on Brilliant Color:

"Singer/guitarist Jess Scott started Brilliant Colors in early 2007, and she's been mighty busy since then. After a steady stream of line-up changes, Scott has finally settled on a permanent line-up with the addition of East Coast transplants Diane Anastasio and Michelle Hill (a veteran of a number of Bay Area underground punk outfits, as well as touring guitarist for legendary UK punk / dub group The Slits!), in the meantime sharing bills with fellow Bay Area acts Nodzzz, Grass Widow, and Ty Segall and opening for the likes of The Urinals and The Homosexuals. Following up two sold-out singles (on Make A Mess and Captured Tracks) and mounting fervor from all corners of the pop underground blog-o-world, Brilliant Colors' debut album drops just in time to secure its place as an undeniable contender for best pop record of 2009. Introducing, recorded in Portland, Oregon by Mississippi Records' Alex Yusimov, marks a great leap forward for Brilliant Colors.

The band has honed their songwriting to a fine edge, delivering ten tracks of sharp, subtly catchy indie pop that finds them more assuredly rounding out the corners of their DIY punk-meets-Shop Assistants, '78-'86 pop collision. Opener "I Searched" is a fully formed pop classic that drifts through the speakers on the back a wistful, echo vocal, while "Absolutely Anything" picks up the pace with a buzzing guitar attack and a chorus hook that would make Joey Ramone proud. The trio is at their best on songs like "Over There" and "Yell In The Air," tunes that are emblematic of the perfect middle ground that Scott has struck between the crunch and drive of punk and the spiky DIY melodicism of early Rough Trade and Flying Nun bands.

Introducing is a sharp debut album packed with taut guitar buzz and dreamy melodies, neatly expanding on the promise of those in-demand 7" singles. Clocking in at barely twenty-four minutes, it's focus and concision is the perfect encapsulation of where we think pop should be in 2009. Side-stepping all of the indie scene pigeonholes, Brilliant Colors have produced a scrappy gem of a record.

Track Listing:
1. I Searched
2. Absolutely Anything
3. English Cities
4. Yell In The Air
5. You Say You Want
6. Over There
7. Mythic
8. Short Sleeves At Night
9. Motherland
10. Should I Tell You"

And for Pants Yell! it continues:

"Life, you will have observed, is not a series of epic epiphanies and seismic milestones, but a succession of quiet weeks and months, interrupted at rare intervals – if you’re lucky – by fleeting moments of significance or grace: a new crush, a break-up, the discovery of a particularly good book or song or film, an intense conversation with a friend that you know you won’t forget. Some of the best pop bands of the past several decades have made it their mission to evoke, in their words and in their music, the understated beauty of everyday living. Think of the Go-Betweens, who found boundless romantic possibility in going for a walk or spending the night in; or Belle and Sebastian’s hushed remembrances of little failures and lessons learned, and sympathetic portraits of young misfits struggling to make sense of the world.

Pants Yell!, despite their misleadingly emphatic (and eternally mysterious) name, belong to this crucial lineage. Together since 2003, when they formed at a Boston art school, the trio is the vehicle for singer-guitarist Andrew Churchman’s modestly proportioned but perfectly realised songs. Abetted by co-founding bassist Sterling Bryant and drummer Casey Keenan (who joined in 2007), his two- and three-minute marvels draw power from restraint and poetry from plainspoken observation – in short, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Not for nothing did he name the band’s last album Alison Statton, in honour of the former Young Marble Giants/Weekend singer, who understood better than most that a whisper, dispensed properly, is always more affecting than a scream.

Alison Statton, the third Pants Yell! album, brought the band unprecedented critical and popular success internationally. And now they’ve come to rest at their spiritual home, Slumberland Records, with its remarkable follow-up, Received Pronunciation. In nine songs and 26 minutes, and without ever deploying a distortion pedal, they make a greater emotional impact than an album twice as long and at double the volume. Which isn’t to say the album lacks for visceral sonic thrills – hear “Someone Loves You” build to an ecstatic climax that perfectly justifies the song’s title, or the elegant guitar solo that launches “Cold Hands” skyward. This is pop that doesn’t need to raise its voice or shake its fist; it wins you with its mind and its heart.

Track Listing:
1. Frank and Sandy
2. Rue de la Paix
3. Cold Hands
4. Got To Stop
5. Spider
6. Someone Loves You
7. Marble Staircase
8. Not Wrong
9. To Take"

Cate Le Bon: Me Oh My

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:30:38 PST

Cate Le Bon: Me Oh My

I’ve seen Cate Le Bon at the odd gig and at festivals for some time but she’s always been a bit of a secret cult, best known for her sidekick work with Neon Neon and wonderfully strange tracks that crept out on MP3 like ‘Mas Mas’. Now her first album is released on Gruff Rhys’ new label and it’s a stone psych-folk classic. It has two sides: sometimes beautifully simple and affecting folk (‘Out To Sea’), sometimes a nightmare filled with dark and disturbing imagery (‘Terror of the Man’ or ‘Eyes So Bright’, which could be the Welsh Wicker Man soundtrack).

Someone shared with me his theory that Welsh music (other than the Stereophonics) owes a huge debt to mushrooms; I’m not accusing Cate of anything but check out the movie that was shot for the track ‘Hollow Trees, Horse Hounds’ by Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris and judge for yourself: it’s Bunuel meets Oliver Postgate on David Lynch’s front lawn. Whatever the inspiration for the music, it’s one of the best debuts of the year, more that living up to the promise we’ve seen live. The title track is a stand out, a psych-folk psychic battle “I fought the night and the night fought me” but every track will either sway you or scare you. She’s the UK equivalent of Devendra Banhart, minus the hair and the whimsy, and deserves at least the same attention.

Riding the Low: They Will Rob You Of Your Gifts

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:53:19 PST
Paddy Considine is quoted as saying “this isn’t some half-arsed actor wanking off in a band” and the EP suggests he’s telling the truth. He was first in a band in Burton-on-Trent with the Leisure Society’s Nick Hemming, Shane Matthews and Rich Eaton and now he and Eaton are two-fifths of Riding The Low, inspired by his love of Guided By Voices. So not only is he one of the UK’s best actors, he has pretty sound musical taste too. The four tracks sound a lot like GBV (the punchy ‘Easy On Our Own’) and early REM (the moodily melancholic ‘Catch You When You Go’). There have been some totally gash actors-turned-popstars (hang your head Keanu) but this stands up and stands out.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart: Higher Than The Stars

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:47:37 PST
After a meteoric but well-deserved rise, it’s great to see the Pains selling out London venues and making a big impression at festivals everywhere (and also on the ‘net: there were 56,400,000 searches on their name when I last googled them). The latest multi-format EP is beautifully produced 80s-sounding indiepop (Cath Carroll and, especially, the Field Mice spring to mind) that has enough bitterness and intimations of teenage passion to counteract the nostalgic sweetness that this sound engenders. ‘Higher Than The Stars’ is blissful dreampop with dark lyrics and ‘103’ is a full-on fuzz assault. The retro comes out in the 12” remixes where DJ Downfall tries to turn them into Yazoo and the remix by ‘Saint Etienne visits Lord Spank’, in truth the pick of the bunch, makes them sound like a discofied young Saint Etienne. 2009 is clearly an annus mirabilis for The Pains but it would be good to hear them move past 1989 now.

Maps: Turning The Mind

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:45:59 PST

Maps: Turning The Mind

The influence of bands like Spiritualized, Galaxie 500, My Bloody Valentine and Ride shone through We Can Create by Maps, aka James Chapman. He wrapped a shoegaze-inspired dreampop cloak around a skeleton of soaring melodies to produce a memorable debut album. His second album, though, is a darker sort of synthpop and is tougher listening. It’s not that there are fewer tunes: his songs tip the hat to the electropop of Vince Clarke and the Pet Shop Boys this time, and he’s always had a talent for planting euphoric melodies within the body of a song, but these songs are freighted with a heavier theme that makes them that bit harder to love.

The album’s title is inspired by a form of cognitive behavioural therapy, and the album deals with the effect on the mind of different stimuli, particularly chemical, to alter extreme mood. He claims that “you can change this state of mind” on the catchy synthpop of ‘I Dream of Crystal’ but the journey starts with strong emotions like anger and betrayal - “when you lie with him/ when you lie to him/ don’t contact me” (‘Nothing’) - and chemical medication is a frequent reference point. That’s a lot for a dance-oriented pop song to carry. His whispery singing too, while fine on the more ethereal shoegaze-oriented songs, has too little variety for all these tracks. There are some excellent tracks - the ultrapoppy ‘Everything Is Shattering’ and sumptuous ‘Without You’ - but for your own sanity I’d leave out a couple of the therapy sessions.

It can be done! Old Redskins material set for release

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:25:34 PST

The Redskins

The Redskins fan forum has announced that Canadian label Insurgence Records will be releasing a CD of old material by the band entitled 'Epilogue' in 2010. The CD will feature both sides of the Redskins first 2 singles 'Lev Bronstein' and 'Lean On Me', some demos, radio sessions, live tracks and 3 tracks by the pre-Redskins band No Swastikas.

Full track listing:

Peasant Army
Lev Bronstein
Lean On Me
Unionize
Keep On Keeping On
It Can Be Done A Plateful Of Hateful (demo for London Records)
Don't Talk To Me About Whether (Live)
Strike (as No Swastikas)
Unnamed (as No Swastikas)
Stickies (as No Swastikas)
The Most Obvious Sensible Thing (Live)

Taken By Trees: East of Eden

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:07:31 PST

Taken By Trees: East of Eden

If this was weather, the mix of cool Northern Europe front sliding down into warm South Asian air would provoke a catastrophic thunderstorm. The results in musical terms of Victoria Bergsman’s trip to Pakistan are much more pacific and it's surprising how well the different styles work together. She makes good use of local sounds - from the gorgeous folky percussion on ‘Watch the Waves’ to the harmonium drones ("drone" used in an approving way) of ‘Bekännelse’ to create the perfect blend of strident and soft. There's also an Animal Collective influence on ‘Anna’ - a midnight music kind of song - while she covers the best track from Merriweather Post Pavilion on the gender-reassigned 'My Boys'.

In going to Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, she's marrying that seductive voice hazed with ice-crystals with expressive Asian musicians and vibrant instruments like dholak, tabla and tambour. The play of talents between Victoria and her co-producer/ bandmate Andreas Söderström and the Lahore musicians is like sunshine after snowfall. After the filigreed beauty of her debut album under the Taken By Trees moniker and her crucial contribution on the immortal ‘Young Folks’, it would have been easy for her to have stuck in an indie rut but she's struck out in the most striking way and the results are pretty spectacular. And it's not cultural tourism; judging by Victoria Bergsman's mixtape that is included with copies bought from Rough Trade, she's internalising an eclectic range of influences for the most mind-broadening experience.

Yeti Lane: Lonesome George

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:01:20 PST
Formerly three-quarters of Cyann & Ben, this is the Paris trio’s debut single. The B-side ‘This Day’ is a link to their space-rock past, while ‘Lonesome George’, inspired by the tale of a sex-starved Galapagos tortoise, mixes a clear Grandaddy influence in the bubbling keyboards with tribal drumming. It’s good but, like the titular tortoise, I’m left a bit unsatisfied.

Life On Earth: Music from the 1979 BBC TV series: composed by Edward Williams

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:57:37 PST

Life On Earth: Music From the 1979 BBC TV series

If you want a reason for the licence fee, BBC documentaries are it. Just as you’d never get a John Peel on commercial radio, no-one makes serious TV like the Beeb. Part of the reason why Life on Earth worked so well was the creatively sympathetic soundtrack, composed by Edward Williams, which is still recognisable 30 years on. Rather than simply a backing to startling images, the music stands up by itself: part Satie-like classical, part ambient and part electronica-inspired music, it still sounds powerful 30 years on. Some of its strength is in the images the music alone creates: from the tinkly ambient sounds describing ‘First Fossils’ in programme one to the sonorous electronic tones and ominous Attenborough samples for programme 13’s ‘Man- a choice for the future of Life on Earth’, although the accompaniment to ‘The Sex Life of the Fern’ is spooky rather than plant sexy.

Jonny Trunk tracked down a white label copy of the music, the composer himself, and then David Attenborough (for the photo rights) before releasing this music. It’s right that it should be available now and that it’s released on Truck Records is also appropriate. If you like any of the slightly outré orchestral music that Trunk has released over the years (Kirchin, etc), this will be right up your street. Most importantly, it reflects the beauty and complexity of life itself, and Williams’ music contributed significantly to making the programme one of the Beeb’s jewels in its crown. And if shames all those TV producers who think that a morose Snow Patrol dirge constitutes a soundtrack, that’s a bonus.

i like trains sea of regrets

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:16:40 PST
I Like Trains (the erratic capitalisation seemingly abandoned) are very much at the decent end of indie anthemics (on a scale that sees Elbow somewhere around the dodgy middle). Sea of Regrets is a downbeat tune that swells and builds gradually with strings, very much like British Sea Power (very much...) but with a more personal and mournful bent to the lyrics.

The Spark is a less expansive affair, a fine downbeat tune belonging more to the tradition of the bruised indie crooner (but again right in amongst the good stuff). On this evidence if they aren't exactly a "you must hear this" band, they are a very good one.

voluntary butler scheme trading things in

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:05:18 PST

Voluntary Bulter Scheme - Much Obliged, Jeeves

OK so there's not exactly a shortage of shambolic whimsical north-of Watford pop music at the mo, but the Voluntary Butler Scheme do it well. The title track is a lovely tumble of fuzzy guitars, handclaps and that funny keyboard thing you blow into. Espousing love by reference to broccoli, running shoes and La Bamba might cross the twee line for some, but it's all fun enough. As are the other songs here - which shuffle and bumble by on in a bit of a smiley daze. Not one for the chinstroker, but gently endearing niceness all the same.

mr plow book of common despair

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:56:31 PST

Mr Plow is a loser. And I think he is a boozer. So you'd better make that call to the Plow King!

Brave. You don't align yourself with the genius of Homer Simpson lightly. But Mr Plow carries the burden well. Utterly unsimpsonslike, these fine songs come from a similar, if less quirky, place to the Handsome Family - harbouring a dark sense of humour amid the downbeat Americana. As a bonus the mood is leavened from time to time with a welcome touch of boom-chikka-boom and rockabilly, not to mention an out-and-out tribute to Link Wray.

The lyrics have a clever simplicity and a determination to evade cliché manifests itself through the song subjects. Rather than thanking the Lord from saving him from drink or drugs, Mr Plow thanks him for the uppers that curb his nastier instincts, his failed suicidal hayseed is a Punjabi cotton grower. And in his way he's capable of simple warmth - as on Lullaby #2. He even manages to lob a few rocks at US driven wars without embarrassing himself - on Mr Plow vs the Axis of Evil. Which all adds up to a very impressive collection of songs.

UK tour for Vivian Girls

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:02 PST
NYC fuzzy popster The Vivian Girls, whose second album Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red) was released in September, return to the UK next year. Full list of dates:

UK DATES
14-Jan Brighton Freebutt
15-Jan Oxford Jericho Tavern
16-Jan Birmingham Academy 3
17-Jan Manchester Deaf Institute
18-Jan Liverpool Korova
20-Jan Glasgow Captains Rest
21-Jan Newcastle The Cluny
22-Jan Leeds Brudenell Social Club
23-Jan Norwich Arts Centre
24-Jan Southamption Joiners Arms
26-Jan London Hoxton Bar and Grill

Goodwill to all men, etc - Middleton winter tour and free download

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:54:53 PST

Malcolm Middleton

Malcolm Middleton has announced a string of new solo acoustic UK dates for this Winter, entitled the ‘Long, Dark Night’ tour.

Middleton will also be giving away a free download alongside the tour, but only to people attending the shows. Malcolm fans will receive an exclusive free download of new unreleased track ‘Ten Green Bottles’ on sign up at the merch stall.

Here are those "Long, Dark Night" Winter tour dates in full:

November

Tue 24 UK, London, Bush Hall
Wed 25 UK, Brighton, Hanbury Club
Thu 26 UK, Norwich, Norwich Arts Centre
Sat 28 UK, Exeter, Phoenix - Voodoo Lounge
Sun 29 UK, Oxford, Jericho
Mon 30 UK, Cardiff, Barfly

December

Tue 1 UK, Cambridge, Junction 2
Wed 2 UK, Bristol, Thekla
Mon 7 UK, Newcastle, Cluny 2
Tue 8 UK, York, The Basement
Wed 9 UK, Wakefield, The Hop
Thu 10 UK, Glasgow, Oran Mor

Brixton show for Pavement

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:49:29 PST
ATP have announced that Pavement will play Brixton Academy on Tuesday 11th May 2010.

Tickets for the London show are priced at £25 + booking fee. Support is to be confirmed. For more information on this show check out the ATP website.

Tickets go on sale from 9am this Friday from
www.ticketweb.co.uk, www.seetickets.com, www.gigantic.com,
www.stargreen.com and www.lastminute.com

A pre-sale for O2 customers starts at 9am on Wednesday and one for Academy venue customers starts at 9am on Thursday.

The Trailer Trash Tracys/ Your Twenties/ Seeland/ Fergus & Geronimo/ The Smith Westerns/ Nat Johnson and the Figureheads

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:59:59 PST

The Trailer Trash Tracys have a name that bears no resemblance to the sound they make. You might be expecting some raw garage-rock band but ‘Candy Girl’ (No Pain in Pop 7”, red vinyl) is slow and expectant shoegazing, full of reverb and echoey vocals. It’s like early My Bloody Valentine or the JAMC on high dosage diazepam. It creates a beautifully woozy atmosphere with a very minimal approach to instrumentation (see [the B-side] for evidence), and even if you don’t like the name, you’ll be hearing a lot more of them. Myspace

Your Twenties is a band fronted by an ex-member of Metronomy and debut single ‘Caught Wheel’ was an excellent three minutes of catchy keyboard-led pop. Follow up ‘Billionaires’ (Neon Gold Records 7”) is in the same vein, a fast-paced and catchy Blur-esque piece of Britpop, complete with “wooh-woohs” in the chorus. Blur fans not wishing to contemplate the ravages that time has worked on Alex James’ features or the current circumference of Damon Albarn’s waist may like to move on now to a Blur-inspired, prettier looking and sound band like Your Twenties. Myspace

The second single from Seeland’s Tomorrow Today album is an electropop gem. The ex-Broadcast and Plone boys have created (with the help of remixers) a set of immediate, harmony-laced electronica. The main track ‘Captured’ (LoAF Recordings) suspends guitars and keyboards in a solution that is part Josef K indie-edginess and part Prefab Sprout pop sheen: an odd combo that works. The EP includes a gorgeous “ghost-folk” remix of ‘Call The Incredible’ by The Advisory Circle, the original track still recognisable but given a spooky frosting of tinkling space sounds. It’s all a very polished electronic pleasure. Myspace

I love to death ‘Harder Than It’s Ever Been’ by Fergus & Geronimo (greatest single of 2009, unquestionably) so whatever follows could never be as good. That’s the case with ‘Tell It, In My Ear’, a 7” on London label Transparent Records, but it’s still a fine piece of plastic. The early rock sounding song is a gem of harmony-strewn lo-fi pop, redolent of the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. ‘Glistening Smiles’ meanwhile saunters into a fine Velvet Underground groove. Denton, Texas is some sort of musical Roswell and their singles have this unworldly way of resurrecting old sounds. Myspace

Another band who are awesome reimaginers of classic sounds are The Smith Westerns. Their ‘Be My Girl’ (Transparent Records 7”) kicks off with a louche T Rexy glam groove before it bursts into a chorus that couldn’t be more explosive if you‘d stubbed out your cigarette into a live box of Standard fireworks. ‘Girl In Love’ mixes the Glitter Band drumbeat (still a classic sound) with a riff straight out of Telegram Sam. It’s a case of Nuggets-plus, another generation of bands inspired by the coolest sounds of the 70s. Myspace

Matt H has only just reviewed the album by Nat Johnson and the Figureheads and the first single taken from that record reflects the album as a whole – Nat has gone a little rockier with the punchy-pop ‘Wonderful Emergency’ (Damaged Goods 7”), but it still has the folky undertones that remind you of her previous much-loved band. The flipside contains a non-album cover of ‘Don’t Worry Baby’. It’s hard to cover something so canonical in the bible of great music without sounding like a Simon Cowell cruise ship performer but Nat and cohorts make a great stab at it; she sings it in an appropriately lovestruck way, the band create a comforting blanket of sound without aping Brian Wilson’s production too much, and the naked honesty in her voice convinces you that this is anything but a throwaway time-filler. Most recommended. Myspace

The Specific Heats Interview: Mat Patalano

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:58:34 PST

The band that had the most impact at Indietracks 2009, to these eyes and ears at least, was The Specific Heats. Their set in the packed church was delayed when their reverb unit rebelled against the UK voltage and caught fire in protest, filling the stage with smoke. Once the offending unit was removed, the band, in matching capes, played a spectacularly energetic set of 60s garage-influenced indiepop, with guitarist/singer Mat’s leaps and keyboardist Marisa (ex-Besties) head shaking a particularly fine sight. The Specific Heats began in Boston as a development of a solo project by Matt Patalano, and are now Brooklyn-based. Mat has been the constant in the changing lineups of the Specific Heats since the band first appeared in 2004. They’ve released one album The Specific Heats Aboard A Space Ship of the Imagination (Total Gaylord Records, 2006) and the ‘Back Through Thyme’ EP in February 2009 (Total Gaylord Records/ Hugpatch), and have a further record Cursed on the stocks, waiting for release (so any labels offering…). Any band that can list as influences Herman’s Hermits and the 13th Floor Elevators as well as Judy & The Loadies is pretty cool in our books. We spoke to Mat Patalano in October 2009.

SXP: The band has been around since 2004. What’s the current line-up?

Mat: It’s myself on guitar and vocals, Keira Flynn-Carson on drums and occasional back ups, Marisa Bergquist on organ and vocals and Julie Kowalchick on bass.

SXP: You were known early on for dressing up in matching outfits which seems to have carried on; at Indietracks you all wore very fetching capes. Why do you go to that trouble?

Mat: I just think it's something fun that I appreciated about bands in the 60s really. I like the idea that a band is a team - a united force. Most of my favorite bands (especially as a teenager) were amazing bands in their own right but also had some sort of gimmick or theme that added to the overall performance. (the "contemporary" bands I'm referring to are Man...or Astro-Man?, Servotron, the Mummies, the Phantom Surfers). I also like the idea of assuming an identity and something like a cape is not only kind of insane looking but it really helps me to assume a particular role. We are there for the audience - we're there to perform as well as to share.

SXP: Your dad was in a 60s band The Lovin’ Kynd. What was their influence on the Specific Heats? And was dad’s experience of the music biz a good or bad one?

Mat: When I first heard the Lovin' Kynd as a kid, (he played drums, sang back up and sang lead on the songs he wrote), I was already into The Beatles, The Monkees and a lot of that sort of stuff. I think it really showed me that I could do it.
It just happened that it had a sound and style to it that I was already drawn to in the first place. And my dad was in a band again in the 80s when I was a kid and I loved being allowed to skip church to stay home and play on his drums which were set up in our basement together or to go with him to his band practices and do my homework there.

Unfortunately, they hired a PR guy to shop around, gave him most of their limited promotion runs of records and he basically took their money, their records, told them something like "oh Columbia might be interested..." and then took off with it all. And so the band disbanded and my dad (a high school drop-out) went into the service. One thing I really want to do is a split 7" with the Specific Heats and some original Lovin' Kynd recordings - I only have 2 of their songs but they had a couple of singles and an EP. I hope I can reissue (or issue) it all someday, but we've had no luck tracking down the other recordings.

SXP: The first album ‘The Specific Heats Aboard A Spaceship of the Imagination' was apparently inspired by Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos'. What is it about space and Sagan that inspired you?

Mat: I've always been into space and science (hence the name of the band). The thing I admire about Dr. Sagan and Cosmos is his passion and way of presenting science in a wondrous way. People tend to think that breaking the universe, people, nature down into scientific & mathematical components/facts strips it of its beauty or wonder, but he believed it just made it all the more awesome and magical. So it was that sentiment more than just space itself - which to me does represent a place of great mysteries and events and possibilities that we can only just barely poke at.

SXP: That album is indiepop but has a more melancholy feel than you might have expected if you’re a late convert to the Specific Heats. Is that fair, and was that a reflection of the mood of the Heats at that time?

Mat: From the beginning, most of our songs I think have been myself trying to stay positive and daydream about good things while in less than ideal situations. There's always been a lot of pining & longing in Specific Heats songs. Which is not something that if I heard about a band would make me want to listen to them, ha ha. You should have heard my solo stuff! Plus, my favorite type of music for the past 10 years or so has been moody mid-60s American garage. Minor-keyed melancholy songs with great melodies even if played or written on quite an amateur level, not the snotty, affected, aggressive, tighter garage-rock that generally resurfaces and is generally associated with the time.

SXP: Your 'Back Through Thyme' EP is a mix of that earlier sound and surf-rock/ garage-pop. Did you intend that to be a transition between the more indie sound and the garage sound?

Mat: Yes, the EP took forever to finish because the recordings kept getting lost and delayed due to hard drives crashing, having my computer stolen and other factors, but I didn't want to abandon it because I felt it was a necessary bridge from the Specific Heats of 2005 (‘Aboard…’) and the Heats of "today" even though by now the Heats are different from that EP.

SXP: You were originally based in Boston and, after the first album, relocated to Brooklyn. Has that geographical shift changed the Specific Heats in other ways?

Mat: In Boston we played about 2-4 shows a month and practiced once or twice a week, now we're lucky if we can all get together once every 2 months. We loved Keira so much (who joined right before the summer I moved to New York), that we decided to make it work long distance. But also the move to NY sparked a lot of changes in my life which is reflected in the songwriting. I went from a routine with a lot of things established in my life into a lot of chaos and depressing scenarios quite frankly and kind of lost a lot of what I had and had to re-build almost my entire life. That and being totally broke really put a hold on getting records out.

SXP: If Brooklyn was ever removed en masse from Earth by aliens, we'd probably lose about 90% of the bands we listen to. Do you get the feeling, as residents, of it being a particularly vibrant and productive scene?

Mat: I do. It's a great community. When I moved here, I gravitated towards certain people, and now in the past 3 years I've watched all of their existing bands grow or have watched them form new bands and do really well. I think we're definitely a part of the Brooklyn scene with our friends (German Measles, cause co-motion!, Crystal Stilts, Knight School, Vivian Girls, etc... and also The Besties/My Teenage Stride - more pop scene) but not as fully since we play so infrequently and a lot of people get the wrong idea about us and think we're a twee band just because I wrote a couple of simple optimistic songs and we couldn't really play our instruments all back in 2004. I mean, we're just not on the same scope here in Brooklyn. Most of our friends’ bands play a few shows each week here...

SXP: According to your site, you’re a member of three bands as well as the Specific Heats (including the magnificently named Theee Doane-Givvaschittz). Where do you find the time? And are the others similarly involved in bands outside the Heats?

Mat: We need to update the website. I USED to be in Thee Doane-Givvaschittz (a garage punk band with my friend Leah), The Lil' Hospital (with Kevin from Knight School & Frank from the Besties) and I played bass in My Teenage Stride. Part of why so little happened with the Heats was because I was spreading myself way too thin, but it's hard to say "no" when your friends' bands that you already like ask. I also used to just work at a record store, now I have an 8:30 - 5:30 job. Now I distract myself with recording...

Marisa has The Besties, who will sadly be playing their last show in December and Julie had her own band the Vesties (if you can believe the coincidence of similar names!) that ended before she joined the Heats (but now she's back in school full time). Marisa is a song-writing force and her own tastes are a lot different from mine, so she will without a doubt be starting a new project for her songs, and I have no doubt that it will be great so keep your ears and eyes open!

SXP: On your Myspace page you're firm about playing smoke-free environments. I suppose you won't be unhappy if New York bans smoking everywhere! But is there a particular reason for avoiding such venues?

Mat: First of all, I think smoking is terrible and I can't believe it's even still legal anywhere in the civilized world. Part of why I ended up falling into the DIY scene (I used to play in hardcore bands in college) was because it didn't seem fair that people had to go and get poisoned just to see a band they loved. The Boston club scene was terrible back in 2000, totally not intimate and had very little to do with the music. So I started putting on DIY basement shows (and also asked people not to drink at those and there were out of control still, but, if and when the cops ever came by, no one was actually doing anything destructive or illegal.)

And I still don't think it's fair to ask anyone to sacrifice their health. But now I have also developed a strong allergy to it (caused mostly by my grandmother and relatives smoking around me so much as a child) and asthma that just makes it physically miserable for as well. They've both gotten a lot worse in the past few years than it was growing up. I love people and I want everyone I love to live long and healthy lives. [The fact that] we only play smoke-free shows will definitely keeps up from entering a broader scene, but we get to keep our integrity.

SXP: The note enclosed with your EP promises a new album Cursed. What progress is there on recording and releasing the record? And does it have more of the garage-pop sound?

Mat: CURSED! is going to be 13 tracks. All that's left are some tweeks to a couple of mixes and Marisa's overdubs on 4 of the tracks and then for those to be mixed (we plan on doing this in November) and the album will be done! It was originally intended to have more a dark and psychedelic feel to it, but I also kept writing pop songs and those were easier to finish - the straightforward songs. So yeah, it's definitely a mix. I tend to take on very overwhelming arrangements and then want to make sure the lyrics can live up to the music, which leaves my/our most ambitious work unfinished.

SXP: Finally, what's next for the Specific Heats? And following your great summer shows, when are you next back in the UK?

Mat: We've already been invited back to Indietracks for next summer so hopefully we'll have an even bigger euro tour summer 2010! We also already have a batch of songs started and set aside for another full length, which we're calling "Birthright" at this stage, which will have more psychedelic, mid-60s folk-rock renaissance bits to it while still remaining a Specific Heats record. I like to think of it as our "SMILE"...