Another Form of Relief

Fans still lamenting the loss of Grandaddy can perhaps take solace in the work of The Foundry Field Recordings. From vocalists Billy Scuh’s uncannily Jason Lytle like voice, to the blending of rock and electronica, to the abstract ideas, The Foundry Field Recordings do sometimes sound like a second coming of Lytle’s merry band.

To just compare The Foundry Field Recordings to another band is unfair on them though, as despite the similarities, there is also a lot of originality to be found here. For a debut album, they are certainly not afraid to experiment with different sounds, each song sounding like it could do something completely different to the previous, while it still fits together perfectly.

The Foundry Field Recordings (I really should learn to abbreviate) are picking up a lot of this so called “blog buzz”, and it isn’t hard to see why. Their songs are simply incredibly good. You aren’t going to find something entirely new here, yet somehow they manage to take a successful formula and make it sound entirely fresh. Which, if I’m honest, is all I’m really looking for from a new band.

MP3 The Foundry Field Recordings - Buried Beneath The Winter Frames (expired)
MP3 The Foundry Field Recordings - Battle Brigades (expired)

You can get even more Foundry Field Recordings via their website, where their entire EP, ‘Fathers as Robots’, is free for download.

Buy ‘Prompts/Miscues’: Insound

The Foundry Field Recordings: Website || Myspace

London calling..

I’m probably not going to get a chance to update tomorrow as I’m going to be spending the day in London hanging out with some friends I haven’t seen in a long time, so you’ll have to somehow manage without me. I’m sure you’ll survive. Yes, yes, I’ll miss you too.

Recently I mentioned that I would probably be heading to the Electric Gardens Festival in august. Electric Gardens is a brand new two day festival located near Canterbury in Kent, with each day dedicated to very different types of music. The first day will be all about the dance and electronica music, while the second is all about the indie rock. Have a guess at which of these two days I’ll be attending.

Seeing as this will be my first festival, we’re going to countdown to it by looking at some of the bands that will be playing there over the next six weeks. Partly this is because I’m not very creative and it gives me pieces that almost write themselves for a while, and partly because I don’t know many of the bands there so it’ll be a little musical exploration for me too. While I’m familiar with some of the bands like The Boy Least Likely To and Brakes, a lot of them are entirely alien to me.

Here’s the 2006 Electric Gardens lineup for the indie rock type day as it currently stands:

The Charlatans
Morning Runner
The Automatic
Mystery Jets
The Young Knives
The Boy Least Likely To
The Long Blondes
The Fratellis
Larrikin Love
The Earlies
Adem
M. Craft
Mohair
Absentee
Scully
The Boyfriends
The Hot Puppies
Eyoe
Simian Mobile Disco
Duels
The Veils
Field Music
Kid Harpoon
Findlay Brown
Eyoe DJ’s
Brakes
Electric Soft Parade
Battle
Jamie-T

There are apparently more still to be confirmed, and with the number of bands already listed, I’m guessing they must be running multiple stages at this thing, meaning some picking and choosing will probably be required. If anyone has any tips on the best ones from the list, it would be greatly appreciated so I can start exploring.

Electric Gardens Festival: Website || Myspace

We Landed On The Moon! are a newish band from Baton Ridge, Louisiana, who have a cd coming out next week. Their interesting influences range from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radiohead (cool) and Patti Smith (ok) to The Police (erm..) and The Killers (oh dear god). I was actually pretty scared to press the play button after reading that little list, but somehow despite that motley bunch, the end result was actually far better than I expected.

The main asset here though is Melissa Eccles, their lead singer who has a vocal ability that isn’t a million miles away from Jenny Lewis. I feel kind of bad invoking that comparison, but it’s there a little in the songs, particularly on ‘Everything Is Fine’. Their songs are on the heavier end of the rock spectrum, but it never becomes too much, the songs always sounding controlled even when “rocking out”. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on your musical tastes, but I kind of like it.

They are releasing their debut album, a self-titled affair, themselves next friday (June 23), and you can pre-order a copy of it here.

MP3 We Landed On The Moon! - Everything Is Fine
MP3 We Landed On The Moon! - Simple Steps

We Landed On The Moon!: Website || Myspace

As a preview for the upcoming Pitchfork music festival, the good folks over at emusic have put up a free sampler containing songs from a bunch of the artists that will be playing there. There’s a lot of good stuff included in it, with songs from Art Brut, Ted Leo, The National, Yo La Tengo and a bunch of others. Most interestingly of all though is the inclusion of a brand new Mountain Goats song, entitled ‘Woke Up New’.

‘Woke Up New’ is taken from their upcoming album, ‘Get Lonely’, which if press releases are to be believed, will be the “quiet, haunted aftermath” to ‘The Sunset Tree’, with a mood of “bittersweet resignation”. We all know that press releases tend to punch these things up a bit, but if ‘Woke Up New’ is fitting of the whole album, it’s spot on. This isn’t the John Darnielle that we heard on the last two records. The song tells the story of getting used to being alone after the big breakup and uses wonderfully real examples of getting used to being alone (”the first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it”). It all essentially comes down to a refrain of “oh, what will I do without you?”. It isn’t an angry question though, just accepting that this is how things are now.

MP3 The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New (expired)

‘Get Lonely’ will be released on August 22 on 4AD.

The Mountain Goats: Website

So I got hold of this Weezer cover by Scottish band Biffy Clyro. While familiar with their existance, I know little about their music, other than Dan helpfully explaining that they are “like Idlewild only with extra whimsy” and that based on that picture, they are the only band in the world to be fronted by Jesus.

I didn’t know what to make of this when I first got hold of it. I’ve listened to it a bunch more times since then, and I’m still not sure. I think I kind of like it, but it’s not the greatest cover I’ve ever heard. Part of me wants to commend it for doing something entirely original with a great song, and the other part wants to condemn it for messing with it. Which is the wrong attitude I guess, but given the simplistic joy of the Weezer verison, this one, which somehow brings in complex arrangements and runs over five minutes, loses that somewhat.

It is certainly worth a listen though, and is almost enough to make me go and listen to some of Biffy’s other material. I have a feeling I might be able to appreciate it a little more then. Full marks for creativity with it though.

MP3 Biffy Clyro - Buddy Holly (expired)

Thoughts?

This is what Cult of Sue Todd look like:

At least, I really hope that is what Cult of Sue Todd look like. I wrote one of my earliest posts about them, and even interviewed Steven, their lead singer. All well and good you might think, until I discovered that on both of those pieces, I put up a picture of an entirely different band. The band in those pieces is apparently called 99 Tales, and the only way I even come close to having an excuse is by pointing out that their drummer used to also be in Cult of Sue Todd.

Anyway, moving past that little blunder, today we’re going to talk about new material from Cult of Sue Todd. Their upcoming album, ‘Kelsey Grammer Loves Us’, will be released in 14 weeks time, and during these 14 weeks, they will be making one song available each week on their Myspace for everyone to enjoy. This is the first week, so logically we’re starting with the final track, entitled “17″. Next week they will put up track 13, and so forth, all the way to release day.

Just in case you’re still out of the loop on the greatness of Cult of Sue Todd, here’s some old school mp3 action from their first EP, ‘Nothing Noteworthy Happened Today’:

MP3 Cult of Sue Todd - Burn Tampa
MP3 Cult of Sue Todd - Foul Fetor

Buy ‘Nothing Noteworthy Happened Today’: Insound (only $4.80!) || Amazon US

Cult of Sue Todd: Website || Myspace

Welcome to just about the strangest Five for Friday that I’ve put together so far. I don’t think I could have put together a more diverse collection of songs if I’d tried. Which obviously I didn’t.

MP3 Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights (expired) (You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, 2004)
I don’t really like Death From Above 1979 very much, no matter how much I try. I really like this song, and I enjoy ‘You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Lots Of Problems)’, but that’s about where it ends for me. Despite this general dislike though, ‘Romantic Rights’ has somehow managed to become one of my favourite songs. I think it’s just the sound of it that works for me. There is so much energy (all from the bass) in this song that it runs the risk of becoming a little too much at times. Look beyond that, and it’s actually quite a sweet song in a roundabout kind of way.

MP3 Weezer - El Scorcho (expired) (Pinkerton, 1996)
‘El Scorcho’ is my favourite Weezer song and one of my overall favourite songs. This to me is an example of the perfect love song. It’s not sentimental, nor is it overly morbid. Covering the usual Rivers ground of meeting an awesome girl but not having the guts to do anything about it, the appeal in ‘El Scorcho’ comes from the little details. With lyrics like “I asked you to go to the Green Day concert / You said you’d never heard of them / How cool is that?” and an aside on wrestling, it allows the characters in the song to become more real than the usual cardboard cutouts fold in this kind of song. This is also about as open as Rivers ever got on record (”How stupid is it? I can’t talk about / I’ve got to sing about it and make a record of my heart”), and in the context of ‘Pinkerton’ as a whole, it all comes together wonderfully.

MP3 Death Cab For Cutie - Steadier Footing (expired) (The Photo Album, 2001)
‘The Photo Album’ remains Death Cab’s finest work to me, and this song is pretty much the best thing on it. All the more impressively, it’s less than two minutes in length, yet has as much impact as any other song on the album. A mournful story about a guy talking to the girl he has a crush on before they all go their separate ways. They spend the time being nostalgic (”We just talk about the people we’ve met in the past five years / and will we remember them in ten more?”) before reaching the final, brutal realisation.: “I let you bum a smoke / You quit this winter past / I’ve tried twice before / But like this, it just will not last”. Absolutely perfect. Oh how I wish Gibbard would still write them like this.

MP3 The Streets - The Irony Of It All (expired) (Original Pirate Material, 2002)
It took me a long time to accept that I like a fair number of songs by The Streets. I previously dismissed them as a band for, well, the kind of people who are currently outside waving England flags. The problem in this is that the demographic of The Streets has changed. Those flag waving morons are fans of The Streets now, whereas on 2002’s ‘Original Pirate Material’, they were largely the target of Skinner’s songs. Much of that album is far more intelligent than their current material, and it’s sad that they have gone down the lowest common denominator route. Particularly when they had intelligent things to say, like on ‘The Irony Of It All’. The entire song is a debate between “Terry”, a larger lout, a “Tim”, a stoner. Each of them puts across their case about drinking the legalisation of cannabis. Obviously Tim is the more sensible, putting across a far more sensible argument than Terry. Would The Streets make a song these days that is essentially four minutes of mocking the loaded up on beer idiots that now make up their audience? Probably not, and that’s unforunate.

MP3 Hamell On Trial - Inquiring Minds (expired) (Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs, 2006)
I can’t seem to get into Hamell On Trial, as I find the “funny” elements of the music wears thin pretty quickly, particularly given the puerile nature of much of it. I like ‘Inquiring Minds’ a lot though, a fun story of a father deciding what he is going to tell his son when he starts asking awkward questions about drugs, sex and crime. His basic conclusion is that “I’m gonna lie, I’m gonna lie, I’m gonna lie”. Which is probably best, as some of the stuff he talks about in this song would probably traumatise the poor kid if he decided to tell him the truth. It’s all good fun anyway, the whimsical guitar sound adding to the effect.

I got my tickets for the Electric Gardens Festival today, so over the coming weeks I’m going to preview some of the bands that will be playing there, largely because I want to learn about a number of them myself. There’s some other good stuff coming up over the weekend, to the point where I’m actually getting a little backlogged in my posts here. It doesn’t really help that my thumb feels like it’s going to fall off after a little bit of typing, but I’m keeping up the best I can.

I debated for some time whether or not to write about Kate Nash. I read about her over at Skatterbrain, downloaded ‘The Nicest Thing’ and liked it a lot. Naturally I explored more of her music and hit a small problem: If I’m honest, I don’t really like the rest of it. Sure, she has a hell of a lot of talent, but I don’t think she has found what suits her voice just yet. Playing around in multiple genres in a commendable thing, but I didn’t find myself wanting to go back to any of the other songs.

That would usually be where my interest in an artist would collapse. One song wouldn’t be enough to keep me coming back, but in Kate Nash’s case, it is. ‘The Nicest Thing’ is up there with the best new songs that I have heard this year. It’s her most stripped down effort, just a sparse acoustic guitar and her voice, which helps an awful lot. This allows her voice, which manages to be both mournful and grounded at the same time, to become the centrepiece of the song. There is also a wonderful knack for random conversational lyrics here (”I wish that you needed me / I wish that you knew when I said two sugars actually I meant three”).

Granted the production is pretty awful here, with the vocals becoming distorted in the louder parts, but even through that the strength of this song shines through. If it were to be cleaned up a little in a studio, it could be amazing.

MP3 Kate Nash - The Nicest Thing (expired)

Kate Nash: Myspace

You may remember that in recent weeks I have featured both Takka Takka and Wood Is Good on this blog. Well it seems that there is certainly something musical in the New York drinking water, as today we have Nuh Uh, a band that contains members from both of those bands.

Nuh Uh is Damion Jurrens and Conrad Doucette. Both of them are members of Takka Takka, and Conrad also plays in Wood Is Good. I don’t know about you, but playing in up to three bands seems like a lot of work to me, but these guys seem to have it down pretty well. The uniqueness of Nuh Uh comes from their song structures. They are a duo that are trying to see how far they can push the traditional pop song structure. This means their album, while being 28 minutes in length, only contains three songs.

Now I’ll admit that when I read that, I was pretty scared to listen to their music. I’m not a fan of long songs on the most part, mostly because they usually seem like they have been padded out for the sake of it. Give me a well crafted three minute pop song, and I’m satisfied enough. Listening to Nuh Uh revealed something quite different though. Even though the song below clocks in at over ten minutes, it still retains the sound of an indie pop song. Driving guitars, direct lyrics, and hell, they even manage to throw in a little harmonising.

MP3 Nuh Uh - This Is Embarrassing

You can hear excerpts of their other songs on their Myspace as the full songs are too long for the site. You can pick up Nuh Uh’s self-titled debut below.

Buy ‘Nuh Uh’: AmpCamp

Nuh Uh: Website // Myspace

Sadly not some amusing lyric or the punchline to a joke, but something I actually managed last night. As such, typing is now very awkward, along with a bunch of other things, so I think blogging is going to be light for a little. Which is a shame given I have a ton of great new things to tell you about. I’ll try and still update fairly often but posts will have to be less wordy.

Just to prove I can spin a post out of just about anything, here are some vaguely related songs:

MP3 Snow Patrol - Tiny Little Fractures (expired)
MP3 Ben Folds Five - Hospital Song (expired)
MP3 The Boy Least Likely To - I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes (expired)
MP3 Saves The Day - My Sweet Fracture (expired)