Another Form of Relief

Now for another band in a seemingly endless list of music that I’d like to explore more of but never get around to doing so. I only have a handful of Jim Yoshii Pile-Up songs, all of which I like. As a band, they fill in most of the tick boxes that I look for. A vaguely upbeat yet depressing sound. World weary vocals. Each song telling a detailed yet still incomplete story. All of this works for me, yet I don’t have the desire to find any more. Are other songs as good as Silver Sparkler? That would be one hell of an achievement if they are.

Great British Hopes collects the very best in unsigned acts from the UK.

This week saw the release of the first proper release from Royal Treatment Plant, the eight song Hope is Not Enough. Over the past two years, the band have really blossomed, moving up from a rough support act for Los Campesinos! into a solid band in their own right. Their excesses have been reigned in and everything is a little bit more polished. In a lot of bands I would be moaning about that, but in works in Royal Treatment Plant’s favour. The vocals of lead PP have undergone the most significant change. Now moving between sweet and bitter and aggressive at just the right moments, she dictates the tone of these songs perfectly. Crack Whore, one of the gentler songs on the record, demonstrates this growth perfectly.

It’s a little known fact that when he isn’t playing in increasingly shitty bands, Brendan Benson is actually a very talented songwriter. Each of his albums have shown an improvement over the previous, but now there seems to be no sign other than a couple of new songs floating around of a fourth album. Which is a shame as his solo work is far more engaging than anything he’s managed with The Raconteurs.

This version of Alternative of Love dates back further than the version on the 2005 album of the same name. It comes from the 2003 Metarie EP and is far more stripped down than the finished version. Whether that is an improvement or not, I shall leave up to you.

I’m always wary of bands that include people who run record labels or any other kind of industry type for that matter. I’m not entirely sure why, but perhaps it’s some kind of built-in snobbery that assumes those involved in the industry are those not talented enough to make their own music. Hey, why else would one become a music blogger?

One for the Team prove to be a pleasant surprise though. The band is focused around Ian Anderson, who happens to run the delightful Afternoon Records. The band seems to be entirely focused on having fun, churning out cheery indie-pop gems. One for the Team aren’t going to set the world on fire, but they will at least warm it up a little.

I usually manage to completely ignore adverts. I block them online, and I don’t watch television or listen to the radio, so I don’t encounter them very often. One of the few places where I am subjected to them is at the cinema. Even there, they usually tend to go in one ear and out the other though. One that did manage to catch my attention though was a Sky advert a couple of years ago. It involved a spectacular skateboarding scene, which in itself would have been nothing much. It was the song that backed it that entirely won me over. I had no idea what the song was or who it was by and it took me a few days to track it down. Which has led us to the inevitable reveal of exactly what that song was.

It’d be easy to say Boy Genius sound like early R.E.M. or Pavement or a million other staple indie influences. In reality, it’s difficult to accurately pinpoint Boy Genius. It’s far easier to focus on what they aren’t. They aren’t really twee. They aren’t really slacker rock. They aren’t really pop. Yet they manage to appeal to my love of each of those things. It’s some kind of combination of the lot that manages to sound like something unique while remaining comfortably familiar. An indie shaped paradox, if you will.

Ed is Dead laments superb bands that are no longer with us. It’s named in honour of the Pixies song to remind us that even though it’s sad they split up, it’s far worse when they get back together.

The unfortunate thing about writing these pieces is that I realise how many great bands have broken up, and secondly, how the majority of my favourite music now tends to date back a decade. Which is odd given I wasn’t into most of this stuff back then. Yet I can still compare bands of now and then and lament that “they don’t make them like they used to”.

It was around eight years ago that I first listened to Pavement, which means they had already been broken up for a year at the time. A couple of years of scouring over most of their releases and I can consider myself a fan. A few years in my collection to mature and they become one of the greats. Now I hope for a new band to come along that sounds like this. I don’t know some generic guitar rock band that cites Pavement as an influence either. I want a band that embraces randomness, doesn’t make a great deal of sense and has a general feeling of not giving a shit. I suspect I’ll be waiting a while.

Until then, we’ve still got three classic records and a handful of other decent releases to make do with. It’s not like this is music that ages.

As usual, we’re on the cutting edge of new music here at Another Form of Relief. As such, here’s a song from Iron & Wine’s 2005 EP, Woman King. Mockery aside, I could post up newer songs and the such, but I’d rather post the ones I like the most. Besides, there are hundreds of blogs focusing on brand new music, so I’ll just stick to the good music.

Woman King isn’t really anything out of the ordinary for the man with the beard to end them all. Guitars twang, drums gently beat on and almost whispered vocals float around it all. The lyrics are as vague as ever, but it’s still perfect music for a hot, lazy afternoon.

Great British Hopes collects the very best in unsigned acts from the UK.

Another band influenced by the mighty Life Without Buildings? They seem to be popping up everywhere these days, and if it were another band, I might be getting a little weary of it. LWB never had time to fulfill their potential, so any band attempting to pick up where they left off is welcome.

Which is a little unfair to Stricken City, who have a lot more going for them than one influence. A clean beat drives everything forwards, guitars float in and out and the vocals have just a vague sense of disconnect from everything else. Which for once, is absolutely fine. This isn’t music that’s about the specifics. It’s all about the atmosphere.

You can download the entire Tak o Tak EP for free from Stricken City’s website.

After Christmas were a Glasgow band that have now broken up. I know nothing more about them than that, and more details seem to be difficult to find. That said, they claim to sound like “Grandaddy if they sounded a bit more like Modest Mouse having a fight with The Flaming Lips at a Midlake party”. Which on the basis of this tiny, tiny song (seriously, it’s under a minute long) seems to be a pretty damn accurate.