Another Form of Relief

Yay, we’re almost done. Which is good as I have a lot of other things I want to write about and I’m kind of bored of this list now.

Like Two Gallants earlier on in this list, Okkervil River are a band that I sort of like based on the songs I’ve heard, but have never been able to get hugely into. I never found the one song that managed to blow me away, despite vaguely enjoy the ones I did hear. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe changed all that though. I don’t know what it is that does it, as it sounds like a lot of other Okkervil River songs, but something does it. Maybe it’s the gentle builds to lines crashing lines, the film referencing or the vague ambiguity of it all, I have no idea. But it works.

Opening lines don’t come much better than that. Granted, like me, you may have to look up ’solipsistic’, which incidentally is a great word, but one I sadly haven’t had the chance to drop into conversation yet. Laura Sings Liver is one girl (shockingly called Laura) with a guitar who makes these literate little songs that manage to evoke a an entire world in the course of three minutes. You know, kind of like Emmy, except great.

Far and away the biggest success story of 2007, Johnny Foreigner went from songs with potential that sounded awful to becoming the most exciting band in the country. Their debut EP type thing, Arcs Across the City, was my favourite release of last year, featuring six songs, all of which were stunning. Yes! You Talk Too Fast has always been a favourite, so it made the list, but like Laura Sings Liver above, any of those songs could have been here.

It’s almost as if Los Campesinos! had my checklist of things that make a song great when coming up with The International Tweexcore Underground. Sparring boy-girl vocals? Frequent time changes? References to seemingly forgotten twee artists? All present and accounted for. The song seems to be about a boy who likes twee and a girl who likes hardcore rock, and they come together by combining it to form tweecore? Something like that maybe? I really have no idea, as it’s far too tempting to ignore what the words are actually saying and just shout along with them anyway.

The first single from the second album by Brakes (I’m not calling them brakesbrakesbrakes, no matter how many promo emails try and get me to), and it’s better than anything that was on their impressive first album. Like most of their songs, it’s short and to the point, including a dig at our government’s draconian anti-terror legislation (“I woke up late and found my liberty lost / It had been written down in law as a security cost / 28 days and I’m presumed guilty”). It also scores extra points for being able to namedrop Scarlett Johannson, which must be something of an awkward name to work into song.

L’apathie de la bourgeoisie.

I was going to write about Conversational Karate, but since I started this list, 4 or 5 Magicians have put up a whole load of new songs on their Myspace. Just go there and listen to them instead. Every single one of them is fantastic. If these guys don’t get some kind of proper record deal and an album out sometime this year, there’s no justice in the world.

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.

A rather local band that has seemingly ended before it began, Andrej and Tim was two guys (can you guess their names?) who made fantastic Ben Folds Five style piano-rock songs. I’m don’t think Iraq ever made it past the demo stage, but it’s still an excellent song. The story of a relationship that’s falling apart while managing to pull in parallels to situation in a certain country, it remains one of the finest songs that I heard last year. The ninth finest in fact.

It sounds like Johnny Foreigner have finally pulled themselves out of the dustbin they were recording in, if the new recordings on their Myspace are anything to go by. The band have gone back and put together some new versions of old favourites ‘Sometimes, In The Bullring’ and ‘Sofacore’, and they sound fantastic. This isn’t an entire sea change though, as there is still very much a DIY feel to these recordings, but in a way where you can actually hear the words now.

MP3 Johhny Foreigner – Sometimes, In The Bullring (expired)
MP3 Johnny Foreigner – Sofacore (expired)

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Now I’m not one for things like karaoke, but if I were, this just might be the greatest thing ever. A fairly lengthy list of indie songs, all done in karaoke format (no vocal, guided lyrics). While it’s largely made up of “known” indie bands (meaning shit ones), there are a few obscure gems in there like Belle & Sebastian’s ‘She’s Losing It’, Malkmus’ ‘Jenny & The Ess Dog’ and Arcade Fire’s ‘Laika’. Guaranteed hours of fun, if you like that sort of thing.

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I’ve been loving this song for quite some time now, so it’s great that I’m finally able to write about it. It’s the first single from the second album by Brakes (I’m not calling them brakesbrakesbrakes, no matter how many promo emails try and get me to), and it’s better than anything that was on their impressive first album. Like most of their songs, it’s short and to the point, including a dig at our government’s draconian anti-terror legislation (I woke up late and found my liberty lost / It had been written down in law as a security cost / 28 days and I’m presumed guilty). It also scores extra points for being able to namedrop Scarlett Johannson, which must be something of an awkward name to work into song.

MP3 Brakes – Hold Me In The River (expired)

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Pitchfork ‘for the fiftieth time, we’re not a fucking music blog’ Media wins “Best Weblog about Music” at the 2007 Bloggies. Strangely don’t feature it in their news section.

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Assembly Now have now made another one of their singles available for free download on their website, meaning you can now get hold of all of their official releases for free. ‘Leigh-On-Sea’ is the single, ‘Tenement’ is the b-side, but they are both great songs. These guys will be supporting the also rather good Wombats on an upcoming tour of the UK, including a stop near my neck of the woods in Tunbridge Wells, which should be fun.

MP3 Assembly Now – Leigh-On-Sea (expired)
MP3 Assembly Now – Tenement (expired)

Did you know that this is post 199 on this blog? No? Well it is you know. Not that that is particularly exciting given my slowdown over recent weeks. It also means that there won’t be anything special for post 200. Not because I can’t be bothered (well, a little of that), but mostly because there’s a lot of fun list type posts coming in December. All of which will be very exciting and have lots of fantastic music contained within them. Hell, there might even be an advent type thing through the month to celebrate the onset of Winterval. Maybe.

MP3 Brakes – Jackson (expired) (Johnny Cash)
A quick guide to how I can be musically ignorant: When I first got hold of the Brakes album, I had no idea that this was a cover. It had a vaguely familiar sound, but that was about it. This story actually gets worse thanks to way I discovered that it was. No, I didn’t suddenly come across the original version of it or even have some nice, musically minded person inform me of the fact. No, I discovered the fact as I was watching ‘Walk The Line’. Which is pretty awful. Both film and reputation wise. As such, I have no idea what the original version sounds like, only how it sounds via Joeaqueeniahiem Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon. Which wasn’t all that different to the version here. The important part is that this Brakes one is very good. Yay Brakes. Even if they do look scarily like Coldplay in that picture.

MP3 Iron & Wine – Such Great Heights (expired) (The Postal Service)
Presenting part 17 of our 435 part series of ‘Such Great Heights’ covers, we have Sam Beam’s attempt at it. You’ll never guess what he does with it either. He slows it down and makes it all acoustic. I bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you? Mocking aside, it’s a fantastic version of an already fantastic song. Much as I love all of these covers that keep surfacing, none of them seem to hold a candle to the original. This one comes across as far more laconic and mournful, probably thanks to it being far slower, allowing the lyrics to smack you round the face far more strongly than the original. I think it was also used to advertise M&Ms. That isn’t so cool, but it’s a fun fact.

MP3 Eric Metronome – Salute My Shorts! (expired) (Rilo Kiley)
Eric Metronome is a guy who just seems to love doing covers. He’s recorded a truckload of Elliott Smith ones, and is currently embarking on a project that sees him covering a different song every week for a year. This includes covers of The Beatles right up to more contemporary fare like Bright Eyes and Sufjan Stevens. This also includes a wonderful little cover of Rilo Kiley’s ‘Salute My Shorts!’. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a lovely, reflective Blake song that has a very silly title. There’s a long story behind that title, but it comes from the song not having an actual name on the album and fans giving it this absurd thing for a reason I forget. Either way, it’s a great song, and Metronome covers it nicely without being too daring with it. It’s a safe cover, but one that his voice seems to suit perfectly. Which isn’t surprising given he covers Elliott Smith, and Blake Sennett sounds always sounds like he’s auditioning for an Elliott Smith tribute band. Not that that’s a bad thing, I’m just saying.

I first wrote about Brakes back in april, but seeing as they are one of the bands I’m looking forward to most at Electric Gardens, it seems right to cover them once more. Best of all, I recently discovered that they have made a couple of the b-sides from last years ‘Ring A Ding Ding’ EP availble for download.

Brakes are a band that like to try a little of everything. The band members are all from other bands. Their songs shoot from country to punk to disco. They line up songs about the music scene next to covers of Johnny Cash. They also power through 16 songs in less than 30 minutes on their ‘Give Blood’ album. To say they are interesting is an understatement to say the least.

These two b-sides aren’t as bold as some of the album songs, but are worthy nonetheless. ‘Shut Us Down’ essentially sums up their attitude when it comes to making music (“I’ve got an electric guitar and a bottle of warm beer / I’ve got some funny ideas about what sounds good”) and like many of their songs, clocks in at only a little over a minute. Despite this, it still manages to feel like a complete song, rather than a fragment, something a number of their songs. ‘If I Should Die Tonight’ is a longer song, and a far more restrained one, seemingly covering something of a bad drug experience. Personally I prefer the slightly more rocking version of Brakes, but both of these songs are still rather good.

MP3 Brakes – Shut Us Down (expired)
MP3 Brakes – If I Should Die Tonight (expired)

Brakes: Website || Myspace

Brakes are a “supergroup” in that they are made up of members from British Sea Power, Tenderfoot and the Electric Soft Parade. The project begun as something of a side project for those involved but has taken off in a big way, largely because the material that Brakes are putting out is far superior to anything those bands have to offer.

They bring a sound that falls somewhere in between country and punk, a combination that I didn’t think was possible, but is somehow achieved here. The album is a shambolic mess (16 songs in less than 30 minutes), but I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. They fly through their songs at breakneck pace, not bothering with any of the pondering nonsense so many other bands would have seen fit to include. They throw in covers of Johnny Cash (‘Jackson’) and Jesus and The Mary Chain (‘Sometimes Always’) and several snippets that are mere seconds in length. One of them allows them to get all political on the ten second long ‘Cheney’ (complete lyrics: “Cheney / Cheney / Cheney / Cheney / Cheney / Cheney / Cheney / Stop being such a Dick!”) which amuses me no end.

MP3 Brakes – Ring A Ding Ding (expired)
MP3 Brakes – Heard About Your Band (expired)
MP3 Brakes – All Nite Disco Party (expired)

‘Ring A Ding Ding’ is the opener to the album and entirely non-sensical, but rocks out so well that it doesn’t matter at all. And I’m certainly not going to take issue with any song that refers to “monkey macaroni”. ‘Heard About Your Band’ is a snide look at the music industry and the posers that surround it (“I heard about your band / Whatever dude”) while name checking a bunch of other artists (Liars, Karen O., Electralane, Sleater-Kinney), and somehow coming out of it without a hint of irony. Best of all, it gets through all of that in less than a minute and a half. ‘All Nite Disco Party’ is the centrepiece of the album, and does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s the perfect disco song which, from a band that is country-punk, quite an impressive feat to achieve. It doesn’t mean a single thing, but by god is it catchy.

If you needed any more convincing, the album was #1 on Rough Trade’s top 100 of 2005. I’m sure the fact they are on Rough Trade’s own label is entirely coincidental. As usual, you can find out more about Brakes on their website and of course you can be their friend on Myspace.