Another Form of Relief

Okay, so that project is basically a video designed to hype Middleton’s new solo record Waxing Gibbons. Which means the title may have been some kind of bait and switch. Sorry about that.

Now I’m not exactly sure what this is supposed to be. It’s not serious enough to be a proper documentary. But it’s more than your usual puff-piece EPK fodder too. Middleton talks openly about his career and the kind of music he writes, while others (including Moffat and King Creosote) pipe in with various observations. Some are supportive (“His voice absolutely sums up pish weather”), others not so much (“Aidan’s got a solo career while Malcolm is just nosediving.”). It’s all good fun, and certainly a hell of a lot more entertaining than most of these advert pieces usually turn out.

The album itself is solid, but nothing really different from what one would expect Middleton. Maybe it really is time to try making that heavy metal album.

Waxing Gibbons is out now on Full Time Hobby.

I haven’t paid much attention to Aidan Moffat since Arab Strap broke up. I kept up with Malcolm Middleton reasonably well, and once you’ve picked one child over the other, it’s hard to go crawling back. In fact, the last I heard about Moffat he was recording under some dodgy name like Psychometric Dildo or something. I might be wrong on that*, but for some reason it feels right.

So I wasn’t exactly excited when an Aidan Moffat & The Best Ofs file dropped into my inbox. Expecting some kind of spoken word dirge, my first thought was something along the lines of “holy shitting hell, this sounds cheerful”. The only problem with that is that Moffat does not have a voice built for cheerful. When your range extends from melancholy to suicidal (not a criticism!), something seems off when you bring the whimsy.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this really. It’s certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination. It ambles along nicely, barely reaching two minutes, meaning it hardly outstays it’s welcome. But something isn’t quite right. Maybe I’m too nostalgic for the Strap of old, but this doesn’t really do much for me. Which may beg the question of exactly why I’m bothering to post it. Honestly, because the video (found below the jump) is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Aidan Moffat related fun facts!
1. He writes a highly amusing advice column entitled I’m No Expert.
2. I once sold a book to Aidan Moffat. He is unaware of this fact.

How To Get To Heaven From Scotland was released last Saturday via Chemikal Underground Records.

* If I am, that’s one hell of a band name right there.

Continue reading Aidan Moffat: One hell of a mime

Malcolm Middleton is not a happy man. His songs are usually bathed in misery. On the occasions where he sings about love, it’s usually the fucked up kind. Swear words are littered in as they would be in regular conversation. Bitter comments are par for the course.

A New Heart is an attempt to do none of those things. It’s supposed to be a song “without a swear word or a slight”, something to pass down to his family. He gamely plays along, and each time the song approaches a “dick” or a “shit”, he breaks off mid-line and changes subject completely. It’s one hell of a ride with only one appropriate conclusion: he admits he’s “lost the race to lose” and embraces failure. It’s always said that you should write what you know.

What is it about Scottish bands that they all have to do at least one (usually multiple) spoken word songs? I enjoy a good spoken word song, but most tend to be pretty awful or gimmicky. It only seems to be the Scottish bands that can actually get away with such a thing and I don’t have the slightest idea why. Is it something about the accent that makes it appealing? All of the ones included in this post feature thick accents, but there has to be more to it than that. Most bands don’t even tend to try this kind of song, yet Scottish bands all seem to give it a go.

Anyway, this all came about after I discovered Ballboy, and by discover, I mean read about them on another music blog. All of their songs were interesting and I’m happy to have found another band that I like, but it was ‘I Hate Scotland’ that appealed to me the most. It’s not actually a song about hating Scotland, more a moan about settling in our lives. It’s not a particularly complex song, just Gordon McIntyre’s “guy in the pub” words over a fairly repetitive backing track. Yet somehow, it still manages to be fantastic.

MP3 Ballboy – I Hate Scotland (expired)

Please find some more examples of this type of song below. Arab Strap painfully discovering a partner’s infidelity, Belle and Sebastian travelling to Mars and My Latest Novel being kind of non-sensical, but in a fun kind of way.

MP3 Arab Strap – Love Detective (expired)
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – A Space Boy Dream (expired)
MP3 My Latest Novel – The Job Mr. Kurtz Done (expired)

Anyone have more examples of this kind of song?

Up until the last few months, I hated remixes. I don’t say that lightly either. I really, genuinely despised them. It’s hard for me to equate that feeling into words, but it was something to do with the destruction of an original work. I know that remixes are usually done with the consent of the original artist, but it always just seemed wrong to me. Kind of like another director re-editing someone else’s film. Recently though, something has changed, and I don’t know what. I started getting hold of remixes of songs I already liked, and while disliking a lot of them, some of them were actually pretty good. Whether this is to do with an increasing tolerance for varied works or my growing appreciation for all things electronic (which most remixes seem to meddle in) I don’t know. I just know that I’m getting a kick out of a lot of remixes lately. So much so that I decided to make a little mix of some of my favourites.

This was largely inspired by picking up the remixes of Of Montreal (hat tip) and The Diggs (hat tip) in the past few days. They got me thinking that there is probably enough of them that I like now to make a little mix of some kind, so I started playing around with the idea. I’m pretty happy with the results. It even includes one remix of a song I don’t even like. I really can’t stand Bloc Party (beyond Helicopter), so it’s a testament to the skills of MSTRKRFT that this version of ‘Two More Years’ is fantastic. You’ll find a bunch of electronic trickery here, and probably some things that will be considered blasphemy by some, but it’s an interesting ride nonetheless.

MP3 Bloc Party – Two More Years (MSTRKRFT remix) (expired)
MP3 Arab Strap – The Shy Retirer (Dirty Hospital remix) (expired)
MP3 Her Space Holiday – Something To Do With My Hands (Arab Strap remix) (expired)
MP3 Bright Eyes – Gold Mine Gutted (Her Space Holiday mix) (expired)
MP3 Beck – Girl (Octet remix) (expired)
MP3 Feist – Mushaboom (Postal Service remix) (expired)
MP3 The Postal Service – Nothing Better (Styrofoam remix) (expired)
MP3 Of Montreal – The Party’s Crashing Us (I Am The World Trade Center mix) (expired)
MP3 The Diggs – Everyone’s Starting Over (Cassettes Won’t Listen remix) (expired)
MP3 Tom Vek – I Ain’t Say My Goodbyes (Phones 12″ remix) (expired)

Other Stuff

The Los Campesinos! gig in London next month (Sep 11, Water Rats) seems to have grown into something much bigger than originally intended. It’s moved from Nambucca to the more central Water Rats and now features a four band line-up, featuring Los Campesinos!, The Hot Puppies, Julian Donkey Boy and The Royal Treatment Plant. It’s also gone up in price to £5. A bargain in itself, but even better for those of us who already had tickets beforehand.

I haven’t pimped this in a while, so it’s time to mention eMusic’s fantastic offer of 25 free mp3s, and this time I even have an excuse! eMusic have just launched their UK service, selling download packages for silly prices, from £9 for 40 downloads per month up to £15 for 90. Which is damn cheap compared to things like iTunes and the such. If I regularly used any kind of download service, eMusic would be it for me. Take the free trial and have a look around at least. Don’t forget that Audio Lunchbox are still offering 50 free mp3s as well.

Anyone who knows me in person will know that I wear Threadless t-shirts pretty much exclusively these days. Well folks, you too can look as cool as me, as they are doing another one of their awesome $10 sales. It runs until monday but I imagine the best shirts will sell out quickly, so get yourself over there and have a look around.

Finally, in relatively local news: Does anyone know anything about the music festivities type things that are supposed to be happening at Bluewater this sunday? The only thing I know is that the good folks of Quadmyre are playing there a couple of times during the day and that it’s supposed to be some kind of music festival, but I can’t find out details out about it anywhere. So on the off-chance that you’re local and have any idea what’s going on, let me know.

I’ve been pretty busy over the past few days with various things, which explains the lighter blogging schedule. As such, this isn’t a “proper” post, more a collection of random odds and ends that I want to babble about but don’t really require a whole post.

So Clor announced that they are splitting up today. This news was greeted with the kind of media storm that is helpfully illustrated to your right. Ok, so that may be a little harsh, but it does seem as if no one really cares about this. I’m not exactly cut up about it, but I think it’s something of a shame. The first album was fairly fun and I was looking forward to what they would be coming up with in the future. Included here is ‘Love + Pain’, probably the funkiest song of 2005.

MP3 Clor – Love + Pain (expired)

I really need to find some new bands that I can jump on the bandwagon of. I’m really not getting much out of the current batch doing the blog rounds. I don’t like Tapes n Tapes much. I don’t like Band of Horses at all. I’ve never been one for Sufjan. Cold War Kids leave me, well, cold. Bishop Allen are ok, but what’s the big deal? Same thing for Feist. I find Beirut rather bland. I don’t get the Lily Allen thing at all. And what the hell is so good about Gnarls Barkley? I guess these things go in cycles, but it feels like six months ago I was falling over myself finding new bands, now I’m not finding much that grabs me at all.

There’s a good chance I’ll be seeing the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in a couple of weeks, which has the potential to be very cool. They play a mean Nirvana.

MP3 Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Smells Like Teen Spirit (live) (expired)

When I wrote about Malcolm Middleton I mentioned an irrational hatred for Arab Strap. I’d never really listened to their music for some reason knew that I hated them. Anyways, I finally got past that stupid attitude, listened to a few albums and feel really bad about all that. They really are quite awesome. I seem to have only scratched the surface of their material too. Here’s the song that has grabbed my attention the most over the past few weeks, with it’s wonderful upbeat depressing style. I adore that delivery too. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a band that has embraced their accents and dialects to such an extent that Arab Strap have.

MP3 Arab Strap – The Shy Retirer (expired)

Think that’s about it for now. I’ll hopefully be back to more normal updates tomorrow. I think I might throw in a post like this every now and then though, it’s kind of handy for the little things. Be sure to check back over the weekend when I’ll have an interview with the most excellent Devin Davis.

Arab Strap is a band that I’ve always had an irrational hatred for. This is nothing to do with their music, which if I’m perfectly honest about, I don’t think I’ve ever heard. Much like Belle & Sebastian though, something made me decide that I didn’t like them and that feeling has lingered. I’m trying to rectify this now though, and will be listening to some Arab Strap as soon as one of their albums arrives. The reason for this change of heart is the guy pictured above, Malcolm Middleton.

Malcolm Middleton is one half of Arab Strap. From what I can tell, he’s the one who doesn’t sing, but obviously this doesn’t mean a great deal to me. I downloaded his single, ‘A Happy Medium’, without actually knowing of his connection of Arab Strap, which is a good thing as that would have probably put me off. Thankfully though, I got to hear it in all of it’s shambolic glory. Music that’s all over the place, back and forth male-female vocals, and such cheerful lyrics (“woke up again today / realised I hate myself / my face is a disease”).

This encouraged me to seek out the rest of the album it came from, last year’s ‘Into The Woods’, which has quickly become a favourite. The depressing tone remains throughout, and even the happy songs have Middleton worrying that if he isn’t depressed, he won’t be able to write songs and that his career will be over. I’m sure this is all slightly tongue in cheek, but he sings with enough conviction that it doesn’t really matter.

MP3 Malcolm Middleton – Break My Heart (expired)
MP3 Malcolm Middleton – Loneliness Shines (expired)
MP3 Malcolm Middleton – Monday Night Nothing (expired)

These three songs are my favourites from ‘Into The Woods’, with ‘Break My Heart’ capturing the tone of the album perfectly. Middleton likes to write depressing songs, but seeing as he doesn’t have a great deal to be miserable about, he’s left with quite a dilemma. “You’re gonna break my heart I know it / but if you don’t / you’re going to ruin my run of unhappiness and destroy my career” he sings in a way that should come across half mockingly, but instead makes you feel quite sorry for the guy. ‘Loneliness Shines’ finds him singing about how he feels that even though he’s ‘got it all’ he ‘appreciates nothing’. I spoke about ‘Monday Night Nothing’ in my last entry, so I’ll spare you it again here. Suffice to say, it’s all cheerful stuff.