Another Form of Relief

Three facts about Johnny Foreigner:

1. Their recorded songs sound like they were recorded from the inside of a steel dustbin.
2. There are no good pictures of them anywhere on the internet.
3. Despite points 1 & 2, they rock sufficiently well enough for me to write about them.

The difficult part for me is convincing you that they rock because of the aforementioned dustbin thing. I know that they rock personally because their live show is something wonderous. I saw them when I went to see Beeches, with them playing second of four bands, and they played one hell of a set. Driven songs that were full of energy, with a vocal that made them sound not a million miles from Los Campesinos!. At one point, lead singer Alexei even asked the audience why they were there and not watching Los Campesinos! who were playing round the corner. I’m not sure what telling you that part achieves. Maybe that Johnny Foreigner are down with the kids. Although they are the kids themselves. This paragraph is going to implode in on itself in a minute.

A couple of days later, I looked the band up on Myspace. At first I wasn’t sure that I’d found the same band. It looked like the same three people, but the songs on their player sounded pretty abysmal, even the single, ‘Sometimes, In The Bullring’. Despite the sound though, I kept going back to the page and listening to the songs. It was probably the live show that did it, as I doubt I would have returned to them based solely on the recordings. There was something about them though. Despite the recording quality, the songs were catchy and full of the bursts of energy that made seeing them live so enjoyable.

With access to some production values instead of a four-track in a living room, these songs would be stunning. Hopefully they will get to record more songs this year, fully unleashing the potential of what they could be. Both sides of their 7″ single can be found below. If that isn’t enough to convince you, I implore you to see them live. To make it all the offer all the more appealing, they will be supporting both Los Campesinos! and Sky Larkin in both Nottingham and their hometown of Birmingham in March.

MP3 Johnny Foreigner - Sometimes, In The Bullring (expired)
MP3 Johnny Foreigner - Camp Kelly Calm (expired)

Johnny Foreigner: Website || Myspace

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Speaking of Los Campesinos!, you are now able to listen to both sides of their upcoming double a-side single on the bands Myspace page. I’m kind of torn over them myself, sparking what may just be the world’s fastest backlash (their first single isn’t even out yet!). Both songs sound overproduced to me, too much distortion and effects, not enough vocal at the forefront. This may change though. Yesterday I didn’t like both of the songs, now it’s only the new version of ‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives’ that annoys me. I’m actually liking ‘Don’t Make Me Do The Math(s)’, even if it takes a little getting used to. Thoughts?

It’s quite surprising that I haven’t done a covers post since last November. When I first started this thing I was doing them every couple of weeks as a handy fall back mechanism that saved me having to write about anything more substantial. I’m only doing one today because I’m tired and need something quick and easy to post, and covers are pretty good for fitting that description.

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I’ve never been a big fan of Tori Amos other than a handful of songs. I’ve never been a big fan of Nirvana either, but I probably like a few more of their songs. So I wasn’t overly excited about this particular cover given that ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is one of the ones I do like. Surprisingly though, I ended up enjoying this version. It’s the polar opposite of the Nirvana original: it’s slow, it only has a piano behind the vocal, and you can clearly make out the lyrics. I don’t even think it’s all that fair to compare it to the original given it shares very little with it beyond the words.

MP3 Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit (expired) (Nirvana)

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I seem to be one of the few people who will admit to wholeheartedly liking Saves The Day. Sure, they aren’t perfect, but albums like ‘Through Being Cool’ and most of ‘Stay What You Are’ are uniformly enjoyable. It’s a shame though that their most interesting release is the one most often overlooked: 1998’s ‘I’m Sorry I’m Leaving’ EP. Five songs, all stripped down to basic acoustic arrangements. While four of these are Saves The Day originals, the collection ends with a cover of Modern English’s ‘I Melt With You’. Their cover doesn’t change the formula all that much, aside from simplifying it a little, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless. Even if I didn’t even know it was a cover for the first couple of years that I had it.

MP3 Saves The Day - I Melt With You (expired) (Modern English)

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As usual, we end with the obligatory cover of a song I’m not familiar with. I have never heard the original version of ‘Bad Reputation’. Actually, I don’t even know who Freedy Johnson is. All of which means there isn’t a great deal of commentary I can offer you on this song, beyond some basic facts. The song was released as an exclusive on iTunes late in 2005, around the time that ‘Plans’ was released. It’s also a rather good song, and if I didn’t know it was a cover, I’d probably assume it was a Death Cab song as it certainly sounds like something that could come from them.

MP3 Death Cab For Cutie - Bad Reputation (expired) (Freedy Johnson)

A London five-piece that claims their influences include Pavement, Grandaddy and Yo La Tengo? If I had a pound for every time I’ve read that line on a band website or Myspace page, I wouldn’t be rich right now, but I would be building up a nice little pile of coins. Hell, is there any band these days that doesn’t cite Pavement as an influence? I get that they will be in the consciousness of recent bands, but when you’ve got a band that would sound more comfortable on the metal shelf of the record store claiming the same thing, it starts to get a little silly. So I’m a little hesistant to listen to bands that claim the same set of stock influences these days. Thankfully I still listen anyway though, as if I didn’t, I never would have discovered My Sad Captains.

Get past their awkward name, and you’ve got a band that does genuinely invoke a 90s Americana kind of vibe from their music. Which is a pretty impressive for a band from London. The guitars guide the songs between the gentler verses to the bursts of noise that seem to prop up the choruses. It’s never over the top, giving a feel the whole time that they band could kick into high gear at any minute, but these guys are far too restrained for that. The vocalist sounds laconic and indifferent when he asks “I was just wondering if you liked my style”, but you get the sense that he really does care what you think.

MP3 My Sad Captains - All Hat and No Plans (expired)
MP3 My Sad Captains - Hide & Seek (expired)

My Sad Captains: Website || Myspace

The Tacticians are two brothers called Joe and Ollie who have been making a small name for themselves through constant gigging around London and their ability to craft an excellent pop song. A song with a title like ‘Hardcore Porn’ might bring up images of Barenaked Ladies style wackyness, but it’s actually an endearing tale about friendships that drift apart. It’s this skill to make an upbeat, simple sounding song that actually masks a deeper layer of complexity underneath that demonstrates the subtle skill to be found in their songwriting. I can see these guys developing quite the following as we move through the year.

MP3 The Tacticians - Hardcore Porn (expired)
MP3 The Tacticians - London’s Alright (expired)

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Speaking of The Tacticians, they are featured on an upcoming collection featuring the very best in new music coming out of the London scene. Entitled ‘Baby I’m Yours’, the release from DC Baby Records also includes Another Form of Relief favourites Beeches alongside other such great acts as Kill Electric and The Distance. It’s out next monday (January 29), and the label will be celebrating with a launch gig this saturday at The Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden where a whole bunch of the bands on the collection will be playing. Best of all, it’ll only cost you a mere £3 to get in. I’m sure I’ll be writing about this collection in more closely in the near future, but for now you can get more details from the DC Baby website, where you can also listen to the collection in full.

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It had to happen eventually. Somebody has put together a “lost episode” of Seinfeld and put it up on Youtube. It’s a very clever splicing of various Seinfeld clips, Michael Richards’ comedy club rant and his subsequent apology on Letterman. It shouldn’t work, but it’s pretty damn funny.

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Just when you think that Kent is entirely devoid of musical excitement, not one, but two fantastic gigs come along. Unfortunately, they are on the same day, so you’re going to have to take your pick. Both of these shows are this Friday (January 26). Both will start around 8pm, and both will cost you a few pounds to get into. None of which is too vague at all.

First off, recent discoveries Andrej and Tim will be playing at the Tunbridge Wells Forum. The show looks like being a lot of fun, and I’m assured that there will be Shakespeare passages and possibly even a Christina Aguilera cover involved. You really can’t go wrong with that, can you?

While I would love to be there for that, I’m going to be seeing The Indelicates at The Command House in Chatham. Decent gigs in Kent are rare enough, but ones within Medway are the kind of thing that demands a parade. For those unfamiliar, The Indelicates have a sound that’s somewhere in between The Pogues and Kate Bush. ‘New Art For The People’ comes across as a latter day ‘Fairytale of New York’, ‘Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die’ is a scathing attack on those that attack him but still follow his every move, while ‘Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60s’ is just a perfect pop song. Oh, and if that isn’t enough for you, one of them is an ex-Pipette and they are best friends with Art Brut.

MP3 The Indelicates - Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60s (expired)
MP3 The Indelicates - New Art For The People (expired)
MP3 The Indelicates - Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die (expired)

Hello Saferide is the stage name of Annika Norlin, a singer-songwriter from Sweden who is turning into quite the sensation. She’s frequented the Swedish charts over the past year, and her critically acclaimed album (’Introducing…’) and EP (’Would You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day?’) have both been issued in various countries across the world to a constantly growing fanbase. But who cares about all that?

I could rattle off facts until the cows come home, eat, rest and head back out again, and it still wouldn’t come close to describing why I love these songs. The main appeal in Hello Saferide’s songs is the character that Norlin portrays throughout. I don’t know how much of it is her and how much of it is a character, but it’s a wonderful listen nonetheless. Through all of these songs, with perhaps the exception of ‘San Francisco’, you can hear a progression of the narrator, each one forming a small part in the complete story of her life.

It’s through this that we see that the narrator is such a flawed character. She’s vulnerable, insecure and she’s not adverse to stalking the guy she likes. ‘Highschool Stalker’ is her diary of this, from looking him up on search engines to staking out his parents house to chatting with ex-girlfriends so “I know what I’ve got to expect”. In most cases, this would seem more than a little creepy, but with it’s upbeat, clappy nature and final refrain (”I swear, you nearly said hi / I could have died”) it’s obvious that she doesn’t really mean any harm.

‘The Quiz’ is where the mastery of Hello Saferide fully materalises though. She’s found a guy that she gets on well with and likes (even if he has a bit too much scifi in his shelf of DVDs). She’s vulnerable though so she puts together a quiz for him, with questions that range from the mundane (”Do you talk in the middle of Seinfeld?”) to the insecure (”Do you still keep pictures of old girlfriends? / Are they prettier than me?”) to the all important (”If I’d fall / Would you pick me up?”). Despite all of the neuroses, she still manages to win you over, and she becomes the kind of girl that you’d want to introduce to your parents. Even though she would probably be too scared to do that.

MP3 Hello Saferide - The Quiz (expired)
MP3 Hello Saferide - Highschool Stalker (expired)
MP3 Hello Saferide - Valentine’s Day (expired)
MP3 Hello Saferide - San Francisco (expired)

Hello Saferide: Website || Myspace || More mp3s

Kate Walsh is a singer-songwriter from Brighton who puts together simple, heartfelt acoustic songs. I stumbled by her Myspace back in August and then found her first album rather randomly at a CD fair in amongst a box of nu-metal and heavy rock. I didn’t take to that album as much as the newer songs that were on her Myspace, and it seems she’s finally finished working on her new album. Entitled ‘Tim’s House’, it’ll be released sometime in March, with the excellent single ‘Your Song’ being released next month. Below is a song from the album sessions that never made the final cut, but it’s still a good indication of what’s to come with the album.

MP3 Kate Walsh - No Time to Look (expired)

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I’m not a fan of Bloc Party (I only really like ‘Helicopter’ and the MSTRKRFT remix of ‘Two More Years’) but I’m addicted to ‘Hunting for Witches’ from their upcoming ‘A Weekend in the City’ album. I’d love to be able to post it here, but I’m sure Wichita would place me under pain of death if I did. I’m sure you could hear it if you knew where to look though. The album itself will be released on February 5.

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The Track & Field Organisation, a lovely little label, are running a ‘lucky dip’ offer where for a mere £10 they will send you six CDs from their back catalogue. For anyone unfamiliar with Track & Field, their roster includes bands like Of Montreal, The Essex Green and The Broken Family Band, so you know that you are in good hands.

As if that wasn’t enough, Memphis Industries are running a couple of similar offers. They will send you either 5 full length albums for £9.99 or five singles from their back catalogue for the silly price of £3.49. Memphis is home to The Go! Team, The Pipettes, Absentee, and a ton of other great bands, so you’re going to get something good out of either offer.

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Finally we have the strongest candidate for a “what the hell?” posting as Samuel L. Jackson unleashes his own special brand of blues on the world. I have no idea what to make of this and I’m not really a blues fan, but it’s certainly a lot of fun. It’s taken from the Black Snake Moan soundtrack that contains a bunch of blues songs by various artists, and obviously the Jackson thing is something of a gimmick to gain it more attention. Which given the fact I’m posting it here must work pretty well. I’m not sure I could take a whole album of this, but I like Samuel L. Jackson and this is a bit of fun, so I’m willing to play along.

MP3 Samuel L. Jackson - Stackolee (expired)

Way Back Whensday is a weekly fortnightly feature looking back at great songs from the 90s that I was too musically ignorant of to appreciate at the time.

I was never into the whole ‘Britpop’ thing when it was at it’s height in the mid-90s. I couldn’t care less who won the Blur vs Oasis war, nor did I really listen to any of the other bands that came out of the movement at the time. To be honest, I still don’t like a lot of them, but I’ve come to appreciate the place of a lot of them, and I even enjoy a few.

One band that I do remember reasonably well from this period is Pulp. I remember the release of ‘Common People’ in the summer of 1995 and how it quickly went to number two in the charts. I remember thinking the whole thing is a little silly at the time, although I rather like it now. Granted it’s not as good as the wonderous William Shatner version, but it’s a good song. It was the song that Pulp released a few months later though that stuck with me.

When ‘Disco 2000′ was first released twelve years ago, the year 2000 actually seemed a fair way away. Seeing as it’s now 2007, it should really make the song feel dated. It doesn’t at all though, thanks largely to the fact that Pulp always seemed dated in the first place. Given that they always seemed like they had just stumbled in from the 70s when they first appeared, the fact that the song sings about 2000 in a future sense really doesn’t matter even seven years later.

The song itself, for all it’s ‘oo-ooh’s and upbeat exterior, is a pretty sad tale, as Jarvis gets all nostalgic about a girl he always loved but never managed to be with. By the time the song reaches it’s end, he seems to have accepted that this is how things are and they aren’t going to change, which while realistic, hardly makes the most cheerful end for a song. Don’t pay any attention to the words themselves though and the whole thing is delightfully jolly.

MP3 Pulp - Disco 2000 (expired)

Disclaimer: It’s not August, I’m not drunk, and it’s only a little bit sunny. There’s no real theme to the stuff I’m posting today, it’s just some random things that I’ve been meaning to mention.

It was way back in May that I first wrote about Keegan Dewitt, drawing comparisons between his work and that of Whiskeytown and yes, Dylan. I’m a big fan of the Americana sound, so his country tinged acoustic songs were right up my street. Keegan got in touch a few days ago to let me know that his new album is now finished. All of the songs have been mixed properly, giving them all a generally richer sound. The album is available to order via Keegan’s website, where you can also listen the album in it’s entirity.

MP3 Keegan DeWitt - Bed of Mercy
MP3 Keegan DeWitt - So High So Low

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The music elitist in me didn’t take Siobhan Donaghy seriously for a long time. I remember that when ‘Overrated’ was first released in 2003 I dismissed it pretty quickly, despite it actually being quite enjoyable. Sometime last year I grudgingly added it to my iPod after hearing it again, and then I realised that the whole exercise was a little absurd. A good song is a good song no matter who it comes from. Dismissing someone talented merely because of their past musical indiscretions is pretty dumb. Granted I don’t think I can name one other song of hers that I actually like, but that doesn’t change the fact that ‘Overrated’ is a fine piece of work. Apparently her new stuff is regarded as being rather good, but I can’t get on with it myself. You can make up your own mind over on her Myspace page.

MP3 Siobhan Donaghy - Overrated (expired)

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Last night I started putting together my first “mixtape” for the International Mixtape Project. It’s a pretty nice idea where each month you’re sent the name and address of someone from their list (currently over 700 people) and you make them a mixtape. Everyone in the group ends up making a mixtape for someone else, and everyone should then get a new mixtape in the mail every month. How well this all works in reality is something I’m about to find out, but I enjoy making mixes, and getting some entirely random ones should be interesting too. I don’t really have any overlaying theme for my first one, but I seem to be basing the whole thing around ‘Gold Soundz’ by Pavement. I have no actual reason for this other than the fact I’ve recently become addicted to it again. It’s one of Pavement’s many pitch perfect songs, and one of the few things that will actually make me think “they don’t make them like that anymore”. So someone is going to be getting a mix of songs that go nicely with this one. Lucky them.

MP3 Pavement - Gold Soundz (expired)

Los Campesinos!
Sky Larkin
Kate Nash
The Indelicates
Johnny Foreigner

What do all of these artists have in common? It isn’t that they are all great, even if that is indeed the case. It’s that I am a big fan of all of them and yet I don’t own a single thing that they have released. Why not? Because all of their releases are on vinyl.

Technically Los Campesinos!, Sky Larkin and Kate Nash haven’t actually released anything yet, but in the coming weeks they will all release debut singles. All of these will be on the 7″ format. I don’t know a great deal about how the industry works on a financial level, but can someone explain to me exactly why this is the case? Surely a CD is far cheaper to produce than vinyl, and surely more people have access to CD players than to record players. So what possible reason is there for cutting out a chunk of the market?

You could argue that there is always a digital alternative as most of these songs will made available as downloads at the same time. I’m sorry though, but the day I pay £1 for a DRM infested piece of crap from iTunes will be the day that I’m done with music. It isn’t an elitist “I want a tangiable product” thing, however nice that is. I understand that for small bands digital distribution is a fantastic thing, and would support it, if only I could do whatever I wanted with the songs I’d paid for on whatever devices I choose to.

All of which leaves me with no legal means with which to obtain releases from the above artists. This essentially forces my hand into downloading copies, which really doesn’t help anybody. It’s actually getting to the point where I’m considering getting a basic record player (and whatever I’d need to rip them to mp3) just to be able to get hold of these releases. Which all seems a bit silly in this day and age.

So can anyone explain this to me? Is there a good reason for the upsurge in vinyl releases? Am I missing out on something spectacular?

There was a time back in the summer when I was posted something Kate Nash related every week or so. I’ve calmed myself down somewhat since then, but if you’re sick to death of seeing her pop up on here, you should probably skip over this post. It doesn’t really contain any new content music wise, it’s just a way of collecting together a lot of the older songs at a time when there seems to be a lot of demand for them.

It seems kind of wrong to namecheck the same blog two posts in a row, but my Nash adventure begun thanks to Skatterbrain. He posted ‘The Nicest Thing’ back in May. I downloaded it, liked it a lot and explored further. Then I discovered I didn’t really like the other songs on her Myspace, particularly an electronic mess called ‘Caroline’s A Victim’. A couple of weeks of listening to ‘The Nicest Thing’ though, I decided to post it on here. A few more weeks of listening to the other songs increased my appreciation of them, even if I still didn’t really like ‘Victim’.

The songs below are the four songs that aren’t ‘Caroline’s A Victim’ that were made available over the summer. ‘Little Red’ is by far the most complex, a five minute epic with multiple time shifts. ‘Dickhead’ and ‘The Shit Song’ are relatively simplistic songs, but they still make for interesting listening.

Note All of these songs are pretty awful in terms of recording quality. This is unfortunate, but these are the only versions of the songs that were put up onto the net at the time. They really are the definition of lo-fi recording.

MP3 Kate Nash - The Nicest Thing (expired)
MP3 Kate Nash - Little Red (expired)
MP3 Kate Nash - Dickhead (expired)
MP3 Kate Nash - The Shit Song (expired)

Over the past six months, it seems that Kate Nash has turned into something rather big. She’s been constantly gigging in packed venues around London, supported Ben Kweller and was signed by some part of Universal. Since then, she’s been popping up just about everywhere, from XFM to Radio 1 to various magazines, as well as an upcoming playlisting on MTV2. It’s pretty cool watching artists do this, and it was exciting to hear that she’d be releasing a debut single in February. Then I discovered it was ‘Caroline’s A Victim’. Honestly, of all of the songs to pick, why this one? You have a bunch of wonderful, quirky, heartfelt guitar songs, so the one that’s released is the non-sensical electronic one that doesn’t seem to represent anything else she’s recorded. While my rage subsides, please enjoy the video for it below.

Thankfully, it isn’t all bad news though. The single is actually a double a-side with ‘Birds’, one of her finer songs. I’d actually buy the single based on that. Unfortunately, as it’s only on 7″ I won’t be able to. Which means I’ll download an illegal copy instead. All of which is an entirely separate rant you can hear me go off on in an upcoming post. Here’s a video for ‘Birds’. It was recorded live sometime back over the summer, and if you don’t feel like murdering the people talking over it, you’ll hear it’s a rather wonderful little song.

Kate Nash’s debut single, a double a-side 7″ consisting of ‘Caroline’s A Victim’ and ‘Birds’ will be released February 5 on Moshi Moshi Records. You can pre-order it for £2.99 at Rough Trade.

Kate Nash: Myspace

As if that lot wasn’t enough, The Daily Growl has some great quality radio rips of a session Kate recorded for XFM last month. It includes a new version of ‘The Nicest Thing’ and a completely reworked (and far better) version of ‘Caroline’s A Victim’.