You could never kiss a Tory boy without wanting to cut off your tongue again!

Los Campesinos! 02/02/2011 – London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire – by Kevin Lawson

I arrived at the venue a good hour and a half later than planned, meaning I had missed most of the support act’s set and wasn’t in the best of moods. The delay was the result of a meeting which had overrun, a taxi strike in Coventry and a cancelled train. I could spew reams of vitriol about each of those things but this is neither the time nor the place. The fact is I did manage to reach the venue in time to watch a performance by Los Campesinos! that left me and everyone else in the audience quaking in a raw throated stupor.

For those of you unfamiliar with their music, they are an eight piece indie pop band formed in Cardiff who write colossal sounding yet intimately articulate songs that brim with youthful energy. There is a knowing self parody in their recordings but they never sound anything less than genuine. Lyrically the band are ultra confessional, each song sounds like it was crafted from the entries of a bleak diary or from a Peep show style inner monologue that you wouldn’t dare utter aloud.

Tonight’s crowd is young enough to make me feel old (I’m 30, does that make me old?) and they all seem to have a dewy eyed loyalty to the band. This connection is more like watching friends play on stage than gawping upon them with star struck reverence. As the band takes the stage the auditorium comes alive. Choruses are roared back at the band with increasing passion, from light hearted party songs like ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ to depression filled break up anthems like ‘We are beautiful, we are doomed’. Circle pits begin to emerge that nearly reach the sound desk and lead singer Gareth is both feeding and feeding off this energy. Eventually diving into the heart of the mob, microphone in hand, before coming back unscathed. With each song being so personal you can see that the performance takes an emotional toll on him, so much so that when he reached set highlight 'The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future’ he was visibly upset and overcome, something that was later confirmed on the bands Twitter feed:

“1,000 people shouting "you could never kiss a Tory Boy without wanting to cut off your tongue again" back at me. Brought to tears onstage.”

It was an amazing moment of catharsis that was a rubber stamp of authenticity, confirming that the bands songs are not contrived notepad fables but are true tales of life, love, loss and misery. As songwriters, they could hold back on the details of their lives and deal in generalisations. But it’s their willingness to share so many intimate details and be vulnerable to the potential opinions of their audience that creates a bond that runs deeper than most bands are able to achieve. Another album is due to be released later this year and I can’t wait to hear the next installment of their lives.

Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold Gives away new music

Great Big Bushy Beard!!

Last October Kanye West's G.O.O.D friday Twitter posts saw the artist giving away free music. At the time it caused a lot of buzz and inspired other musicians to follow suit. This time it's the turn of Fleet Foxes lead singer Robin Pecknold to use the social networking platform to give us some free goodies. Yesterday via his Twitter feed he gave away three brand new songs stating "These aren't Fleet Foxes songs, but I didn't know where else to disseminate it."

All the songs are stripped-back acoustic solo numbers that aren't really Fleet Foxes tracks, but they are hauntingly beautiful nevertheless. The songs were recorded recently in Los Angeles and Pecknold as added that "One is a duet with my friend Ed Droste from the amazing band Grizzly Bear, one is just a new solo jam, and one is a cover."

It's certainly more than enough to tide over any Fleet Foxes fan until the release of their new album Helplessness Blues which will be in music stores on 3/05/11. Happy Pancake day everyone!

Downloads

I'm Losing Myself (Feat. Ed Droste)
Derwentwater Stones
Where Is My Wild Rose

YOUR LOCAL MUSIC VENUE NEEDS YOU - By Lawrence Piddock

Saturdays... to some they're a bunch of ladies who gamely cover Depeche Mode numbers for charity
(I'll stick my head over the parapet here and admit that I admire their pluck - I look forward to them
tackling "Blasphemous Rumours" or "Flies on the Windscreen"* at some point). It's also the day
when the nation's Dads drag their kids around Homebase and B&Q. It's also the day when many
nervous football managers are preparing for the worst and consider updating their CV.

In my case it's normally means sacrificing my lie-in in order to get to the washing machine before
everyone else, and while I wait a while for the washing to be done, it means listening to the wireless
for a bit.

Funnily enough, they were discussing small venues. A lot of people texted and tweeted about seeing
bands before they were famous in small clubs, pubs etc before they were famous. There was the
inevitable stories about someone's band supporting The Jam or The Police or The Smiths and the
bovine excrement especially the guy who claimed to have seen Oasis play in Portsmouth in 1992 (For
the record Pete in Southsea, if you're reading this, Noel was still a roadie for Inspiral Carpets at that
point! And they didn't play south of the M6 till 1994)

Anyhow, it got on to a discussion of the problems facing small venues at the moment. A lot of
familiar stories about places struggling to keep going. Being involved with the Rising Sun it's
something I know pretty well.

[edit] radio's Songs of Praise #1

The problem with only doing a podcast once a month is that inevitably there are some songs that I like that don’t make it onto the playlist for one reason or another. Over the last year there have been many occasions where I would’ve liked to share a song or two with you all but didn’t have the time to write a full article to explain why. That lack of time still remains but it shouldn’t prohibit me from spreading the musical goodness around.

So to make sure that you don’t miss out on music that you could potentially like, I’ve started an ongoing Spotify playlist that i'll be updating every so often:

[edit] radio's Song's of Praise #1

Cheers

K x

Radiohead - Lotus Flower by Kevin Lawson

This week Radiohead announced that they would be releasing their eighth studio album The King Of Limbs. Billed as the world's first "Newspaper Album," a lavishly packaged version of the record will be issued on May 9; however, the music itself will be issued on February 19 when digital downloads will be made available to those pre-order the record. You can get the album from their site http://thekingoflimbs.com/

In promotion of the album, Radiohead have also released the first cut from the record to You Tube, called Lotus Flower and sounding distinctly Radioheady (yes that is a musical term) it has me excited for the rest of the album.

Support Local Music #1 - By Kevin Lawson

The music scene in Reading is really on the rise, with more and more of our local acts releasing records for you to buy. This is the first in an ongoing series of articles that aims to let you know whats been released, what's on the horizon and where you can buy it:

Ben Marwood - Outside There's A Curse (Xtra Mile Recordings) - Available Now

His debut album finally hit the shelves of music stores this January and it doesn't disappoint. Filled with self deprecating anti folk tales of life, heartbreak and loss it's a great record that deserves your attention.

Physical Copy - Buy From Amazon £6.99
Digital Copy - Buy From 7Digital £6.99

Ben Marwood - It's Harder Now To Break Your Stupid Heart by editradio

Mister Fogg - Moving Parts (Kicking Ink Records) - Available Now

Mr Fogg is one-man electronica phenomenon – artist, writer, producer, label boss of Kicking Ink Records. His Debut album is a dark gem of a pop record. It was released in April last year and was produced by Bjork collaborator Valgeir Sigurðsson. If you don't own it you should be ashamed.

Physical Copy - Buy From Amazon £7.99

Digital Copy - Buy From 7Digital £5.99

Stung by mrfogg

Amy's Ghost - Dance Of Defeat (First Circle Records) - Available Now

Amy's Ghost debut album Dance of Defeat picks up it’s listener and drops them into a misty musical world that brims with wizardly enchantment and excitement.

Physical Copy - Get yourself to one of their shows, they'll have plenty for sale
Digital Copy - Buy From Amazon £6.99
Listen here - http://soundcloud.com/first-circle-records

Attention Thieves - Let it All Out "single" (Velocity Recordings) - Available Now


I played this track on my February podcast and would be happy to recommend anyone that likes the Foo Fighters to take a good listen to this Reading quartet.

Physical Copy - Get yourself to one of their shows, they'll have plenty for sale

Digital Copy - Buy from HMV £0.79

Let It All Out Clip by Attention Thieves

Toddlers - Split Single #1 (doubledotdash recordings) - Available Now

TODDLERS are reading's favourite psych garage ragga kraut bass n drum n drumstick guitar duo,  likened to "polite-ning bolt" or "the rhythm section from bleach". For me they sound a lot like US band Liars and might soon find themselves on an [edit] radio podcast

Physical Copy - http://files.doubledotdash.org/ddd029.html


HOUSE OF JOHN PLAYER - SHYRITE / SON ESQUEET by doubledotdash_music

Please remember to do all you can to support your local musicians. Remember music isn't an expense, it's an investment.

When I wanted you, how I haunted you

The Dodo's - Black Night 

In 2008 the Dodos caught people’s attention with their amazing single Fools. A highlight from their uneven sophomore album Visitor; it’s a heart thumping avant-garde pop delight which pits lead singer and guitarist Meric Long against drummer Logan Kroeber in competition for the musical spotlight. Within this dynamic the talented duo created a raw, vibrant, thunderous yet tuneful sound that hinted at a bright future. Their next album ‘Time to Die’ polished their sound but at the expense of the competitive edge that made their music so compelling. They’d become too polite, allowing each other to take turns in the spotlight until that the energy that friction caused had all but gone. I hoped that it would be a transitional phase for the band, that they would take the lessons learned from those two records onto their next. As it turns out my hope came true.

On Black Night, the opening track from new album No Color (released March 15^th) they’ve retained the polish without the loss of the spotlight grabbing friction that made song’s like Fools exciting. The track opens with a beat reminiscent of the Animal Collective’s ‘Purple Bottle’ but with heavier bass drum and a greater leaning towards sounding pop than avant-garde. It rolls along with duo in harmony until around 2 minutes into the track, where they start trying to out do one another in a playful manner that's a delight for the ears. It’s effortlessly brilliant and leaves me hankering for the rest of the album. Ace!