Summer Camp pitch tent at Owl Parliament

Union Chapel
27 February 2010

Compton Terrace saw a lot of musical activity on Saturday, with 9 acts listed to play at the 2nd folky/acoustic one-day fest from promoter Platforms:live.

Go Away Birds / Photos:Anika

Plus points included Blue Roses, and a fine early set from Pete Roe, new to me, followed by personal favourites Go Away Birds, who could never be less than delightful, although maybe only scored a 50% success rate with their attempts, on two or three songs, at a bigger sound to try and fill the volume of the chapel - didn't need to push it, would have been perfect without straining....

Summer Camp 

Main highlight of the day was the 10th, unannounced, act; a not un-forseeable detour during Jeremy Warmsley's set where he was joined for two songs by Elizabeth Sankey for Summer Camp's live debut, part of their warm-up routine for SXSW. They seemed happy with their efforts - not unreasonably, as they came across very well - with just the 2 voices and guitar making a decent stab at the smooth dance-pop recordings in circulation. (One here.) I don't know too much about JW, but seem to enjoy his collaborations more than his solo work, and have come to find the Summer Camp tracks extremely pleasing. Look forward to more.

The other scrap-book item was Emmy The Great, who I can pretty much take or leave, being joined for a 'fans choice' song by Darren Hayman, who appears to have Minor Legend status, but I must have been looking the other way whilst it was being earned as I don't think I've ever heard a note of his output. Apparently as many as 5 or 6 votes were cast for a Girls Aloud song to be the nominated cover, and with good grace they went with it, albeit correcting the lyrics firstly for A) grammar, on grounds of understanding that double negatives and abbreviations aren't proper English, and B) driving-related content, on grounds of taste. Can't argue with either refinement, although in performance it ended up as a keyboard-led electro-popper which may or may not have been an improvement on the original; I am as uninformed on this point as I am on so many others.

jj: smokin'

Nice lil video for Let Go, with smoking and bare flesh and a dog; elegant yet inexpensive - perfect.

We even have sight of a face, so we can recognise them when they actually get round to playing that show they were booked for the other week, and then we'll all be happy.

Dent May's mobile fun-fest

The Lexington
21 February 2010

Forgive me, my public - hello Ulla! - a temporary pixel shortage meant there was no room on The Internet for this one until now.

After what must have been a less-than-smooth approach to the event, which had originally been due to also feature Toro Y Moi and Jeremy Jay, at a reduction of £1.50 we instead had as sole support a diffident chap called Slushy Guts (why?), who sometimes sounded a tiny bit like Sleeping States used to, but couldn't really be described as a remotely adequate replacement for anyone.

Dent May played with help from a one-man choir/ rhythm section, and they tootled through his quirky, perky ukelele-led repertoire, which went down well with the crowd, who mostly looked and danced as if they were a Sunday School teacher's outing, which was both odd and funny.

It really is almost impossible to hear DM's bouncy songs without head-nodding and foot-tapping, but even so it did wear a touch thin after a while, as there proved to be little variety in the tone or pacing of tune after tune. From his first album only Meet Me In The Garden did more than just chug along, with its doo-wop diversions and more developed song structure, and was the clear stand-out for those reasons.

Some quite interesting new countryfied material also featured, in part describing the mis-haps of a hopefully fictional Maloney (?) if memory serves, with the uke rested - no bad thing - for a battered guitar, which all sounded promising for the next album.

Pluck me: here comes Joanna

Much breathless excitement on The Internet lately regarding Joanna Newsom, due to the impending release of her triple album Have One On Me, out on March 1st; also on the battle to buy show tickets via the Southbank's feeble website. Worked for me, if a bit creakily, front stalls centre thankyouverymuch, so that was just about ok...

In advance of the album, four new tracks have been made public, streaming for a week at a time. Pleasingly but naughtily, someone has ripped and posted my favourite of these, Good Intentions Paving Company with a slideshow selection of Ms N's extremely easy-on-the-eye photos. Oh yeah.

Tune Yards, Trash Kit, Think About Life: Merrilly, Merrilly, life is but a dream

Cargo
15 February 2010

What a stunning show! It will prove to be one of the best of the year, without a doubt.

Think About Life and Trash Kit did their respective thing nicely enough, but have a looong way to go - which they should hopefully realise, as they were all at the side of the stage, eyes fixed, for Tune Yards' bravura performance.

Photo: Anika

From the off it was clear that the sell-out crowd were friendly, and whilst the set that Merrill and bassist Nate Brenner played was well judged, it actually just took flight from the very first chords, and I have never seen such rapt attention for an act that is fairly loud and doesn't need total hush to be heard. Something in the air, perhaps.

Unlike their last London show, supporting Dirty Projectors at The Scala, which was, y'know.... good 'n all, this time it was a fantastic confluence of mood and sound and energy, all making for the best atmosphere I have seen in, probably, 30 visits to Cargo. And it wasn't complicated! There was no percussion rig for Nate to play this time, so it was just live and looped uke, drums and voice by Merrill, with bass from Mr Brenner. And it was like magic; even a re-started song - technical reasons - didn't break the flow, which ultimately earned the longest and most honest ovation I have seen, which wasn't missed by the performers.

And then we were even treated to a rare live version of Sunlight as one of the encores. You quite literally had to be there; I was, you weren't. Get with the programme.

Music Go Music: everything but the kitsch in sync

9 February 2010
Hoxton Bar & Kitchen

You have to just roll with it, to some extent, when watching M Go M, or else risk overload trying to level out all the references, nods and winks they bring into play. From their appearance - Vanilla Ice on keys? Keith Moon on drums? Rhys Ifans, or is it Tom Petty, on guitar? - to all the seemingly familiar-sounding phrases and riffs that pepper their songs, it is like an endless game of Name That Tune.

I have seen husband and wife David and Meredith Metcalf play the same venue before, as their other band Bodies of Water, and then, as on this occasion, was blown away by their ability to deliver a demanding set in immaculate fashion. This time it took until the third song before the lead vocal was correctly mixed, but once it was, we were away. Unfortunately keys and backing vox struggled for parity, which was a shame.

Catching flavours of, amongst others, The Sweet, Lynyrd Skynrd, Blondie, Roy Wood and Radiohead at different times, the bulk of the set could have been based on making a song by combining Knights of Cydonia with Summer Night City into a rollicking up-tempo dance-y rock romp, and then layering something extra on top. That aspect was actually in danger of getting a bit boring - and then one of the really good songs would surface, and you could see what it was all about.

The best songs usually had a bit more Abba, and a bit less Muse, and also had a stronger single direction - country, or disco - than the others, and were damn near disco-pop (or country-rock) perfection. Imagine how great they could be if they took it seriously - but that would defeat the object....

I left smiling, and very impressed.


N.B. - while writing this, I went here, for double-checking purposes, and discovered that Muse have reached levels of kitsch that Music Go Music can but dream of.

Super Furry Animals

In the near future I am going to see Polar Bear, and Panda Bear, and Bear In Heaven, maybe twice. And Grizzly Bear, definitely twice.

I would like to include Pearl and The Beard in this beastly list, but a) they aren't on tour over here, and b) it would be cheating, albeit arguable on a technicality. So instead of this, here they are being jolly:

Pearl and the Beard - Will Smith Medley from Goddamn Cobras Collective on Vimeo.

However, here, featuring quite literally a cast of several, and including their interpretation of when ET met Thelma and Louise, are some of the few bears not on my immediate agenda:

Bear Hands // "What A Drag" from Cantora Records on Vimeo.

Motherfuckers

I need paper!

Rafter-Paper

Let's dance

The whole world has gone disco crazy, in a slightly woozy way. A welcome move, I must say.

Get this:

Summer Camp-Ghost Train

(The Internet has stopped talking about who Summer Camp might really be, so clearly the news is out, although hasn't reached me. However - that sounds to me like a Dan Lissvik bassline.... could be just a sample though, I suppose....) EDIT: in fact the news broke publicly a week later, with Jeremy Warmsley (!) and Elizabeth Sankey identified as the dudes in question. Who'd a thunk it?

And this!

Miracles Club-A New Love

(A little nod to Voodoo Ray at the start there?)

This one, obviously:

Caribou-Odessa

And for good measure:

Yeasayer-O.N.E.