Another Form of Relief

I’ve missed far too much music in the past year to make a proper best of list, so instead, here’s a list of 22 songs that I’ve loved from 2009. Listed in alphabetical order, not preference. Even though all of them are bloody good.

4 or 5 Magicians – Preaching to the Converted
So 2009 didn’t turn out to be the year that 4 or 5 Magicians finally “made it”. They did manage to put out their first proper album though, and despite a few missteps, it’s an excellent start. Dan Ormsby’s great talent as a songwriter shine through throughout, perfectly chronicling both a struggling band and the state of the country side by side.
Obama is your new Che Guevara / Scouting for Girls are your new Nirvana / You’ve written ‘Free Tibet’ on the back of your hand / But you figure Tibet is a part of Iran
Youtube

Allo Darlin’ – Henry Rollins Don’t Dance
Pretty much the song of the year for me, although The Polaroid Song put in another strong effort for Allo Darlin’ Seemingly going from strength to strength at the moment, I’m half expecting them to be everywhere this year.
But in my head you’re Patrick Swayze / You drag me from the corner and call me ‘baby’ / But baby you don’t even wanna see Dirty Dancing
Youtube

The Answering Machine – Another City, Another Sorry
The album as a whole never quite lived up to the promise, but The Answering Machine did manage to deliver some superb individual songs. Kind of what the Arctic Monkeys might be sounding like now if they hadn’t turned to shit.
I’m sort of lacking certainty / Situations tease the drunk out of me
mp3

Art Brut – Demons Out!
Three albums in and Art Brut seem to be stuck in a holding pattern. No real advancement in terms of songs or abilities. A set of decent songs that are a hell of a lot better when performed live due to the natural charisma of Eddie Argos. I suspect Art Brut are about as a popular as they are ever going to be at this point. Which is why we can expect plenty more songs like Demons Out! in the future.
How am I supposed to sleep at night when no one likes the music we write / Record buying public, we hate them / This is Art Brut vs. Satan
Youtube

Camera Obscura – French Navy
2009 seemed to be the year that Camera Obscura finally came into their own, to the extent that after 13 years, the band were finally able to give up their day jobs. Each album has seen the band grow considerably, with more complex and elaborate arrangements making their way in. It might have taken a while, but they certainly aren’t the “female Belle & Sebastian” any longer.
Spent a week in a dusty library / Waiting for some words to jump at me
Youtube

Cats on Fire – Horoscope
The album was a little patchy, but Horoscope is an excellent little song. Mattias Björkas’s voice is the standout attraction here. He may sound like a Euro-Morrissey, but it’s incredibly easy to drift away in his voice.
I don’t believe in happy ever after / A pyramid scheme, I keep telling you
mp3

Dananananaykroyd – Pink Sabbath
A band that creates such a ruckus that they require a whole new genre has to be created for them (fight pop). Dananananaykroyd’s album was an assault on the ears from start to finish, but in a good way. If such a thing is possible.
Buy it, run it, kick it, fuck it, yeah
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Emmy the Great – First Love
It took her the best part of five years, but Emmy the Great’s debut album just about lived up the high expectations. Boldly leaving off a number of “old favourites” in favour of a more structured collection, the album is a grower, but worth investing the time in.
You said I have a room / At the top of the stairs / I have a room with a view
Youtube

Fight Like Apes – Something Global
Possibly the most exciting band that I came across this year, I can’t think of album that has anywhere near as much play on my car stereo. And boy does it sound superb when bombing along at speed. Wonderfully unhinged.
So give me my hook / I know it might sound lame / Do you like my new look? / Waistcoats are so today
Youtube

Go Away Birds – The Year of Letting You Down
The first of two songs on this list to feature Catherine Ireton, who quickly became one of my favourite voices. A small start for someone who deserves to be huge.
I met with a little success in my work / You wouldn’t call it taking off / But you wouldn’t call it starving
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God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl
..and here’s the second. For some reason that’s baffling to me, the Gold Help the Girl album didn’t seem to get the acclaim I expected it to. The fact it’s not showing up on many end of year lists is deeply confusing to me, but I suppose you can’t win them all. The song choice here is pretty arbitrary, as it could have just as easily been I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie, Musician Please Take Heed or a handful more.
The dawn will touch me in a way a boy could never touch / Their promise never meant so much to me
Youtube

Johnny Foreigner – Choose Yr Side and Shut Up!
An excellent song from what was an ultimately disappointing second album. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it and all, but it doesn’t even come close to Waited Up Til It Was Light. This album opener hints at the bigger things in store though. Short and to the point, it has anthem written all over it.
So we scattered pretty / Arcs across the city / Turned pockets of doubt / Into blankets of hope
Youtube

Let’s Wrestle – We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon
A slightly disjointed debut album from Let’s Wrestle still brought us a bunch of excellent little songs, if nothing incredibly exciting. Still, a band very much of their time. Few others can so perfectly articulate life in modern Britain.
We’re going down the job centre / And soon we’ll come out with a job
Youtube

Loney, Dear – Airport Surroundings
Typically late to the party with stuff like this, I never got into Loney, Dear (is there a comma or not?) much when the critically loved Loney, Noir came out. I absolutely love Airport Surroundings though. You’d think that would inspire me to check out the rest of the album, but I still haven’t got around to it. One day.
The last pain got away when I gave up myself / I bought a ticket to hell when I met up with you
mp3

Los Campesinos! – The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future
Utterly, utterly perfect. The album is quite good too. So I’m told.
I ask her to speak French and then I need her to translate / I get the feeling she makes the meaning more significant
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Pocketbooks – Footsteps
The debut album from Pocketbooks delivered on all of the promise of the past few years. One indie pop gem after another, it makes me very excited for the future. From their adoration soaked performance at Indietracks to high profile support slot of God Help the Girl, bigger things are almost certainly in their future.
From the supermarket aisles to the dance floors of provincial towns / I’d occupy my vacant hours just waiting for something
mp3

Projekt A-ko – Molten Hearts
It always great when you discover a great band that is still rocking as if it’s 1994, and that’s exactly what Projekt A-ko do. Distortion, lazy vocals and even the odd “woo”. More like this in 2010 please.
I’ve got no fashion sense / I haven’t got any sense / I’ll never make any sense
Lastfm

Stagecoach – Break
Another band unashamedly influenced by the 90s US indie rock scene, Stagecoach bring the sound of Seattle to Brighton. Break is three minutes of song perfection, from a band we’ll be hearing a lot more of in the near future.
It’s not like her to cross the line / But she crossed it before and she’s gonna cross it one more time / Shit breaks / I kick in her face
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Superman Revenge Squad – Super Sad Morgan
Pretty much any song from the supremely talented Ben Parker could have made it onto the list. I actually debated placing a Nosferatu D2 song on here, but it seemed to be pushing things a little. His songs are a masterclass in the writing of lyrics. Quite why a label hasn’t snapped him up is completely beyond me.
If someone mentions Woolworths again I think I’m gonna combust / We stole all of the Pic ‘n’ Mix from out her hearts
Lastfm

Tigers That Talked – Black Heart Blue Eyes
One of the most beautiful songs of the year from a band I really need to listen to more of. Black Heart Blue Eyes has such a wonderfully theatrical sound to it, topped off with some perfectly snappy wordplay.
Bigotry’s obligatory around here / There’s nothing for me to defend / Just got to go
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Voxtrot – Berlin, Without Return…
Everything that the debut album should have been but never managed. Ramesh Srivastava’s vocal is as pitch perfect as ever, once again with a song worthy of his talents.
Do you spend your whole life trying to get back home? / Where do you go?
Youtube

The Young Republic – The Wolf
Now a fully formed band, The Young Republic may not be the same band they were a few years ago, but they know exactly what they want to be. Shifting from orchestral indie pop to Americana isn’t the easiest leap, but they’ve pulled it off with style. Incredibly self assured.
It hasn’t been this bad since my grandpa was a kid / He made it through, he never told us what he did
Youtube

Sunday didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. Waking up rather early after a terrible night’s sleep at the Travel Inn, followed by Tesco breakfast (surprisingly edible), and then arriving on the site before anyone else at all wasn’t the best feeling in the world. Still, after not getting to any on the Saturday, I was determined to catch at least one on-train performance, namely that of The Manhattan Love Suicides. Now, apparently they’d broken up shortly before the festival, but having no idea, went and sat and waited for them in a train carriage for twenty minutes. When nothing had happened, we jumped off the train at Swanwick once more. Of course, this is apparently when some of the band got on the train and played some songs. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Or rather, you can. Because getting off the train then meant it was possible to pop into the train shed and catch Zipper’s set. Spanish indiepop doesn’t come much better than this, and their set was all the more joyful from just how happy the band seemed to be to be there. Between each song they didn’t seem to quite believe that they were playing in front of a large crowd at a railway yard in Derbyshire. Although I suppose in those terms not that many people would. Still, they were so good that I made sure to pick up a copy of their album which was a mere £5 on the merch stall.

A trip back to the main stage for The School turned out to be a fine set. Although I like The School, it tends to be in a fairly casual sense. I only know a handful of songs, but by the end of their set, I was looking forward to their upcoming album as eagerly as anyone else in the crowd. Every song hit just the right note, the entire band sounding in sync, which is no mean feat given the number of members and variety of instruments on display. This was an assured performance for a band that is certainly going to go on to better things.

Back to the shed for The Smittens, another band that I don’t know as well as I should. Not that it mattered with their set though. So ingrained into the Indietracks tradition are the band that they could have recited a phone directory and still drawn everyone in. Thankfully they didn’t do that, but instead flew threw a set of pop gems, winning over everyone in the process. By the end of the set, a certain band may well have been declaring them to be “top of the pops”.

Now, something not entirely unexpected happened during The Smittens’ set. That something being that it started to rain. Showers had been predicted for the Sunday, so no one could really complain. Other than the fact that once it started about 3pm, it didn’t bloody stop. The rest of the festival was turned into an indoor event for those less hardy souls, or something unpleasantly muddy for those willing to brave it.

And brave it we did, for Lucky Soul were playing on the main stage. The last time I saw Lucky Soul was at a lovely gig at the Luminaire two and a half years ago, and boy have they come on as a band in that time. A hearty mix of old and new songs make up their set, which still pulls considerable numbers given the unpleasant conditions. A few years back I would have been worried that a band like Lucky Soul would quite a limited one-trick pony, but the band seem happy to evolve instead of limiting themselves to a purely 60s sound. As it sounds, their upcoming album could finally be the one that pushes them over the top.

A little bit later and it’s time for Pocketbooks, who are the band on the bill that most define the festival as a whole. They run through most of the songs from the recently released Flight Paths album, with Falling Leaves, Fleeting Moments and the superb Cross the Line being the obvious highlights. By the end of the set, every attendee of the festival seemed to be in the shed. A cynic could argue that this was related to the heavy rain outside. A more accurate version however would be that Pocketbooks are just that damn good.

After Pocketbooks came Disasteradio, who offered the first truly “what the fuck?” performance of the day. Bizarre electronic beats performed by a man seemingly having a seizure on stage, who then proceeds to try and eat his microphone. I’m sure there is an audience for this, but I suspect it wasn’t here. Following that was Help Stamp Out Loneliness, who were fine for what they were, but didn’t do very much for me.

Finally, it was time for the mighty Art Brut, a band whom I love dearly, but worried wouldn’t quite fit in with the Indietracks mentality. Things got off to a shaky start with Eddie Argos almost immediately using the t-word (a crime here one might suspect) and getting the Indietracks version of a bottling (sweets thrown at him) for his trouble. Of course, it didn’t take them long to win everyone round, particularly once Argos had the epiphany that he’s telling people to be less twee while playing from a setlist of songs about public transport, DC comics and chocolate milkshakes. Between this, and proclaiming that MJ Hibbett is “top of the pops”, there doesn’t seem to be anyone still holding out against them. A spirited version of Modern Art, adjusted to “DC comics make me want to rock out” follows a performance almost entirely from the audience, starting what may have been the first Indietracks mosh pit. Their set comes to a storming close with the band’s drummer spectacular falling off the stage by rocking just a bit too hard, to possibly the largest applause of the festival. Five minutes later, the band return for an encore, even if Argos had already put on his jacket to leave.

Which is where Indietracks 2009 comes to a close for me. I could have stayed for Teenage Fanclub, but I’ve never been much of a fan, and nothing was going to top the highs of the Art Brut set. It’s not one moment or performance that makes Indietracks so special though. It’s the atmosphere of the entire event. Of every festival or gig I’ve ever been to, this was by far the nicest. Everyone is generally lovely, the bands are happy to mingle and watch the other bands, and the whole DIY spirit of it all is impressive to behold. It’s hard to articulate that kind of appeal in a review such as this, and that is unfortunate, but Indietracks leave you with a feeling of pure joy. This may have been my first visit to the Midland Railway Centre, but it certainly won’t be my last.

Well, that was just about the most perfect weekend ever.

A proper review (you know, with words and stuff) will be following tomorrow, but here are 134 pictures from the joy that was Indietracks 2009.

As usual, you can click through to Flickr for the full size versions.

I went to see the new Harry Potter film today. Entertaining enough, but I spent the bulk of the film being disturbed by the following:

MP3 Art Brut – Fight! (expired)

Well, Eddie Argos at least. I don’t know enough about what the other members look like to tell if they are here, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were.

This video is for the upcoming single release of Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60s, which will be released next month on Weekender Records. The video features our merry band marching on Camden with placards declaring “it could be worse”, “it’s fine” and “the grass is green enough”. Which must have baffled the locals a little.

MP3 The Indelicates – Fun Is For The Feeble Minded
MP3 The Indelicates – New Art For The People
MP3 The Indelicates – Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die

The Indelicates: Website || Myspace

#9
Hello Saferide
‘The Quiz’

Website
Myspace

I only discovered Hello Saferide at the end of the year so I haven’t had the chance to write a full post yet, but very few artists have grabbed my attention to the same degree in the past year. Hello Saferide is the solo project of Annika Norlin, a singer songwriter from Sweden. What appeals to me most is that each song has a ton of personality shining through. Norlin isn’t afraid to project herself entirely into her songs, leaving each one with a kind of brutal honesty. The darkness of this is countered by a ton of little knowing references and quirks that just make the whole thing seem so real. At the forefront of this is ‘The Quiz’, the first song from her recent ‘Would You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day?’ EP. 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?”). Kind of a far less annoying version of Alanis’ ‘21 Things I Want In A Lover’.

#8
Art Brut
‘Nag Nag Nag Nag’

Website
Myspace

There isn’t really anything new here to the Art Brut formula, but surely that’s half the point? I had minor fears about new material not being a patch on the first album because the novelty would wear off, but despite it’s similarities, ‘Nag Nag Nag Nag’ works just as well for me as the old stuff. The whole thing can be seen as the story of ‘My Little Brother’ after the guy grows up, although I have no idea if that was intentional. Anyway, the Art Brut style remains the same as it was before: driving guitars, random bursts of energy and a witty song about a music dork delivered in Eddie Argos’ usual half-talking, half-shouting, half-singing (yes, I’m aware that’s three halves) style.

#7
4 or 5 Magicians
‘Forever On The Edge’

Website
Myspace

“4 or 5 Magicians are a four piece, led by Dan Ormsby, who did pretty much everything on their recorded songs, and takes charge of vocals and guitar duty when the band play live. The most obvious thing in Ormsby is that he has based his style on an influence not often seen in British bands: Stephen Malkmus. ‘Forever On The Edge’ has “slacker anthem” written all over it. A brash, honest song about wasting one’s life and almost depending on becoming famous to be successful (”I’m wasting my time in this band / Pinning all my hopes on getting signed / Well it could happen / Some idiot might sign us”). It’s this kind of witty, self-aware writing that first drew me to the band, and that they have the sound to back it up is even better.” – originally posted July 18.

#6
Belle & Sebastian
‘Funny Little Frog’

Website
Myspace

By far the best song on ‘The Life Pursuit’ and one of the finest that Belle and Sebastian have put out in years. The usual B&S staples are here, as well as a couple of new things like a piano, which they really don’t utilise anywhere near enough. Murdoch really throws himself into the vocals too, giving one of his strongest performances since ‘Your Cover’s Blown’. It’s either the official theme song for stalking or a love letter to the Virgin Mary depending on how you listen, bringing just over three minutes of perfection.

#5
Voxtrot
‘The Start of Something’

Website
Myspace

I know this technically was released in 2005, but the ‘Raised By Wolves’ EP it’s taken from didn’t get released in the UK until 2006, so I’m going to go with that excuse. Anyway, if you’ve read more than a handful of music blog in your lifetime you’re probably aware of who they are and who they sound like. This one sounds rather like The Smiths, and it’s incredibly good, particularly given that I don’t like The Smiths very much. I’m not entirely sure what it all means, as it seems to change focus an awful lot, but it’s full of wonderful imagery that’s delivered beautifully. If a full album next year doesn’t make them explode into the limelight Death Cab style, I’ll be very surprised.

#4
Kate Nash
‘The Nicest Thing’

Website
Myspace

“‘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.” – originally posted June 15.

#3
The Young Republic
‘Girl From The Northern States’

Website
Myspace

The Young Republic are an eight piece (I’m sure there used to be nine though) indie folk pop band from Boston. If you’ve ever been through this blog before, you will have read me rambling about them on a fairly regular basis, so I’ll spare you here. Despite finding it very early on in the year, ‘Girl From The Northern States’ is still one of my most regularly played songs. It’s a gentle, melancholy tale of lost love that sounds more cheerful than it really has any right to. Combine this with a delightful orchestral background and you’ve got what is, for me, an almost perfect pop song.

#2
The Light Footwork
‘The Art of Everyday Communication Part 1′

Website
Myspace

The Light Footwork were the perfect example of why I started this blog in the first place. Pushing a band as good them onto unsuspecting readers is what makes this whole thing so worthwhile. A lot of songs come and go, but there are some that grab you immediately and never let go. ‘The Art of Everyday Communication Part 1′ is one of those. It starts off interestingly enough and then jumps up a gear a little way in, morphing into an entirely different song. Constantly time shifting and styles and pitch perfect male-female vocals make for an always surprising but constantly enjoyable listen.

#1
Los Campesinos!
‘You! Me! Dancing!’

Website
Myspace

“Los Campesinos! are a seven-piece from Cardiff who have seemingly already mastered how to make the perfect pop song. Best of all, they manage to bring a glockenspiel to the proceedings. Standout song ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ is just sheer joy from start to finish, it’s six and a half minute runtime actually feeling like half that. Jangly guitars combined with harmonising combined with witty, gleeful lyrics, and you’ve got a winning combination.” – originally posted July 4.

I wrote that six months ago and I’ve only grown to love this band even more in the time since. During which I’ve posted more songs from them, including fun things like a Pavement cover and other songs have turned up on the net. I saw them live back in September and will be doing so again in March. When I (and a number of other blogs) first wrote about them, they had around 600 friends on Myspace. They now have over 3000. At that time, they had no label and just a four track demo. They are now signed to Wichita and will be releasing their debut double a-side single in the new year. It cost me £3 to see them last time. It’s going to cost £6.50 this time. What I’m getting at here is that Los Campesinos! have been by far the biggest success story of 2006. Few bands arrive so fully formed and garner so much attention so quickly. I can think of nowhere more deserving though. 2007 should be a hell of a year for them, and us.

—

Well that’s my favourite nine songs of the year. It turned into a little bit of a slog toward the end, but I’m pleased with how it all turned out in the end. This brings to an end any kind of organised posting structure until this kind of time last year. This will probably be the last thing that I post in 2006, so I’ll wish you all a happy calender change now. This year has been a hell of a lot of fun for me, and this blog has been a big part of that. So thanks to everybody that stopped by, even if it was just to grab the songs. I’ve got a lot of great music to write about in the early days of 2007, so come on back and let me share the good music with you.

This is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a while now. Art Brut are one of my favourite bands of recent years, and I quite like We Are Scientists, even if I felt they have never lived up to their potential. Anyway, the two bands are touring together in the US at the moment under the banner of ‘The Also-Ran Buzz Bands Tour’. Seeing these two together would be pretty cool in itself, but they have gone a step further and have released a tour only single where they cover a song from the other band, both of which you’ll find below.

(I wouldn’t usually put up both parts of a single like this, but hey, it’s a tour only release, and if you’re going to one of the shows, odds are you’re going to buy it anyway.)

I’m glad that the We Are Scientists song that Art Brut decided to cover was ‘The Great Escape’, largely for the selfish reason that it’s my favourite WAS song. I’m indifferent toward many of their songs, but this thankfully isn’t one of them. Team Brut don’t really change the song in any major way, but obviously adding Eddie Argos’ voice into the mix of any song will give it an entirely different sound. He sings in his usual manic way over the top of surprisingly restrained instrumentation, which paradoxically ends up giving the sound a more urgent sound than the original, particularly when it gets a little solo happy in the last minute.

MP3 Art Brut – The Great Escape (expired)

We Are Scientists on the other hand manage to completely re-invent ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’, turning it into something akin to a 70’s dirty rock song. Which while taking some getting used to is actually pretty damn cool. This doesn’t even sound like the kind of thing that WAS usually come up with, so for them to do this with someone else’s song is quite an achievement. I probably wouldn’t even recognise that this was an Art Brut cover without knowing that it was beforehand. Which is no bad thing given how a cover is always far more fun when the bands involved play with the songs a bit rather than just repeat them.

MP3 We Are Scientists – Bang Bang Rock & Roll (expired)

Art Brut: Website || Myspace
We Are Scientists: Website || Myspace

One of the founding members of Macaca Mulatta is Chris Chinchilla, one of the original guitarists in Art Brut, one of my favourite bands, so this was obviously going to be a project that I’d be interested in. Chinchilla hooked up with Jim Rhesus of punk band ‘Rhesus’ after that band imploded. Macaca Mulatta are still developing their sound, but their current demos have a great sound to them: simple, fun guitar rock that bluntly talks about the trials of life and the music industry without ever becoming overly miserable.

‘Dancing On A Weeknight’ is a scathing attack on the state of the music industry and the way that bands are presented to us, while managing to take a swipe at hipsters at the same time. All of this comes in the kind of upbeat, witty way that it’s hard to disagree with anything that the band is saying. ‘Defeated’ is a little less cheerful, but does come with a nice refrain of not letting life get you down too much, no matter how awful it becomes. Both songs are still quite clearly in a demo stage, but with a little production they, and the band, could go on to be something special.

MP3 Macaca Mulatta – Dancing On A Weeknight
MP3 Macaca Mulatta – Defeated

Macaca Mulatta: Website || Myspace

Art Brut are one of those rare bands where I’ll actually go out of my way to pick up every single that they put out. There’s a reason for that: their b-sides are so good that it makes the process worthwhile. While inevitably the best material ended up on the album, there’s a little treasure chest of more obscure Art Brut songs that are also worthy of your time. Seeing as I’m all about spreading the joy, I now present to you a complete set of Art Brut b-sides, taken from their single releases for the album ‘Bang Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll’.

(from Modern Art / My Little Brother)
MP3 Art Brut – These Animal Menswe@r (expired)
Seeing as this was a double a-side, there was only one new song to be found, but thankfully it’s a good one. ‘These Animal Menswe@r’ has become a live staple for the band, and it’s easy to see why. It’s brash, shouty, and easy to sing along to, all great qualities for a song being played live. We’ll ignore the fact it’s largely non-sensical as that pretty much adds to it’s charm. I’m sure I could sit here and analyse the words and find some deeper meaning about how it’s all about Eddie Argos or whatever, but that really isn’t necessary. It’s fun enough to rock along to it.

(from Emily Kane)
MP3 Art Brut – About Time (expired)
MP3 Art Brut – Maternity Ward (expired)
“There was a time when I couldn’t stomach Morrissey / I thought he can’t have had a harder life than me” opens ‘About Time’, introducing us to a slightly darker, more reflective side of Art Brut. Both of these songs are something of a departure for them, representing a shift to a more downbeat and, dare I say it, more mature sound. ‘Maternity Ward’ has a late 90s Blur kind of sound to it, but happily isn’t anywhere near as depressing, with its repeated chorus of “Everything is gonna be alright”. Maybe this is the song they were singing about in ‘Formed A Band’ when they promised to write a song that would let everyone know that it was going to be ok.

(from Good Weekend)
MP3 Art Brut – Really Bad Weekend (expired)
MP3 Art Brut – Home Altars Of Mexico (expired)
‘Really Bad Weekend’ is another in the Weekend series, and although not as good as the ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ ones that made it onto the album, it’s still a great song. Covering the cheerful ground of Eddie seemingly having an affair behind the back of his girlfriend, but with a unique position: he feels really, really bad about it. ‘Home Altars Of Mexico’ is a simple song about looking at souvenirs of a past relationship which causes pain yet being unable to let go of them. It’s probably the most simple song here, with hardly any instrumentation to it at all, which works very much in it’s favour.

MP3 Art Brut – Blame It On The Trains (expired) (unreleased)
This isn’t actually a b-side, but it’s one of their better unreleased songs, so I thought I’d throw it up here with the others. I’m actually not sure what the situation with this one is. There was talk of it being the first single from the second album, but that was months ago and nothing has been heard since. This also isn’t the full studio version, this is from a radio session for 6Music sometime last year, which is why the sound isn’t as crisp as it should be. As songs go though, it’s one of the better Brut songs, a fun little tale about being late for meeting people while he has “30 minutes” with his girlfriend, declaring that it’s ok because he can just “blame it on the trains”. Best of all, he feels entirely justified in this because of how many times the trains have really made him late in the past. Which, as anyone who has ever had the joy of travelling on the British railways will know, is a very good point.

More about Art Brut on their website here and their Myspace here.

I’m not one to be all smug about knowing of bands before most people do, but.. oh, who am I kidding? I love being smug. Which means it gives me great pleasure in how right I was about Art Brut. I first heard Formed A Band thanks to 6Music all the way back sometime rather early in 2004. It was awesome enough for me to seek out CDs (it was damned hard even finding the single) straight away, and I’ve kept up with them ever since, with them managing to be one of only three established bands that I’ve seen live (Weezer and Remy Zero if you’re wondering). You can find a full report of this excitement on my other blog.

Anyways, it’s always exciting to find new and crazy versions of songs you already know, so when I heard about an Art Brut acoustic set, my curiosity was sufficiently piqued. Apparently this was recorded in October 2005 for a French Radio station called Planet Claire, which has a website worth visiting solely because it’s the most baffling and horrific thing you’ll ever see. The set consisted solely of Eddie Argos and Jasper ‘I’m not Chris Chinchilla but good god I’m trying’ Future, leaving us with very stripped down, but still highly entertaining versions of the songs.

MP3 Art Brut – Formed A Band (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – Rusted Guns of Milan (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – Modern Art (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – These Animal Menswe@R (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – My Little Brother (acoustic)
MP3 Art Brut – Moving To LA (acoustic)