Another Form of Relief

Tullycraft have just released The Singles via their website, a 22 song collection that includes their singles (obviously), songs that appeared on compilations and a couple of live tracks too. Shipping to the UK is a little pricey but I’m in no doubt that it’ll be worth it. There are few bands these days that I feel compelled to collect a complete collection of, but Tullycraft are one of them.

Our Days in Kansas is taken from their 2005 Disenchanted Hearts Unite album and is just about my favourite thing they’ve record. Yes, that includes Twee, too. It’s all over the place, time changing and getting more or less excitable depending on what it is getting nostalgic about. Whether it be caustic one-liners (“Did you want a response or just someone to edit?”) to the considerably more dark (“Sometimes I wish we’d kept the baby”). It still ultimately decides that “things were so much easier in 1993″ though. Which unfortunately is probably true for most of us.

Yep, I may just get this done in time for the 2008 list.

This is one of those songs that you listen to once, think it’s okay and then don’t really come back. Then you hear it again, wonder what it is and think it’s rather good. By the time you’ve heard it four or five times, it’s that catchy song that you already seem to know all of the words to.

There’s nothing here that’s any different from their previous material, but what does it matter? When pop is this jangly, sweeping and melancholy all at once, I’m certainly not going to argue.

The Light Footwork came in at number two on this list last time, and while their position may be a bit lower this time around, they are still just as good as they always were. Releasing a split EP with Tereu, Tereu (which incidentally had the best artwork of the year), they unleashed three new songs upon us, the best of them being Rebellion Time. All of the Light Footwork hallmarks at here, from the Beulah-esque melodies to the back and forth male-female vocals. With a bit of luck, we’ll get a new full length from them in 2008.

How did I go so long not knowing anything about The Thermals? Seemingly the only band genuinely pissed off at the state of the world, each album seems to get angrier than the last, with the latest almost a concept album about living under a fascistic Christian state. Which is obviously not based in reality at all. Anyways, combine the political comment with near perfect song constructions, and you’ve got one of the most exciting bands working today.

Partying like it’s 1959, Friends of the Bride’s music sounds like it could have come from the era of swing and big band music, but it somehow manages to remain fresh at the same time. Cut Down On My Friends is an obvious standout, a bitter tirade about needy friends accousing the singer of being anti-social, followed by a declaration that he’s going to have less to do with them by moving to the suburbs. This was the b-side to the band’s first single, so they are setting the bar pretty high, given this could have been a superb single in itself.

The Punks Are Writing Love Songs shows that little has changed in the Tullyland. A look at current music trends, jangly guitars and the obligatory ‘ooh-oohs’ are here. While it’s not quite the self aware anthems that Twee and Pop Songs were, it’s three minutes of joy that you’ll be hard pressed to find from other bands.

An Icelandic rock band that references Paul Giamatti? Grounds for a top twenty placing right there.

Seemingly this years love it or hate it indie hit, as there seems to be no middle ground on this one at all. Personally I fall into the love it camp, and while I can see the formula becoming stale across several songs, Thou Shalt Always Kill hits all the right spots. A glorious manifesto for modern life that wants to right as many wrongs as possible in this country, no matter how big or small they may be. It’s ridiculously quotable too.

Scrappy guitar playing? Distortion all over the melodies? Deliberately fuzzy vocals about nothing? You will find none of these things in the music of Assembly Now. The guitars are clean and crisp, every nuance can be clearly heard, and the vocals are both clear and literate. Of course none of these things are new concepts, but they certainly seem to be things that are out of favour at the moment. This makes Assembly Now all the more refreshing.

Yeah yeah.

Arriving from the ashes of the mighty Nosferatu D2 is Superman Revenage Squad, a one man stream of consciousness tour de force. The music doesn’t really matter because it’s all about the words. Which is for the best, because as Idiot Food is disjointed at best. The song is littered with entire sections that go wandering off on separate tangents and leave the music behind. But it doesn’t really matter as you’ll usually find yourself nodding in agreement with everything he’s saying.

I woke up feeling like a new person, unfortunately he was much worse than the one I used to be

A fine slice of upbeat melancholy from Sweden’s ambassadors of loserpop (I will make this a genre if it’s the last thing I do).

Rock bands fronted by girls with aggressive vocals seem to be in favour at the moment, but who are we to argue when the results are as good as Australia’s Operator Please? Seemingly a rallying cry against popularity, all of the crucial boxes are ticked, from shouty-to-gentle vocals, music that goes all over the place, as well as the obligatory occasional fuck.

If any band can put as much of a smile on my face as Tullycraft can, I haven’t heard them yet. Probably the best kept secret within the indie pop scene (this is their 13th year and they still seem to be obscure), last year saw the release of their fifth album, Every Scene Needs A Center. The whole thing is loaded with excellent pop songs, but few come close to the pure joy of If You Take Away The Make-Up.., with it’s handclaps, gentle vocals and to the point two minute running time.

Coming across as a sort of 2007 version of The Futureheads (only, you know, good), Assembly Now don’t seem to have quite nailed their final sound yet, but it’s fun listening to them mess around while they try. Leigh-On-Sea perfects the all over the place vocals and guitar rhythms that initially worked so well for the aforementioned band. Assuming they keep on doing what they’re doing and finally settle on a sound that is just a tiny bit more original, these guys have the potential to be something very special.

It was the always great Nothing But Green Lights that first put me onto The Bridge Gang, and thanks to my ever excellent timing, they had already broken up by the time I started listening. It still amazes me that great bands can fly entirely under your radar for years without you ever being aware they exist. Oh well, late or not, London Sky Tonight is a perfect rock single – rough, ready and deceptively simple.

One of only two songs from Under The Blacklight that I still quite like a few months later, Dreamworld is far, far too good to have anything to do with that album. The only Blake effort within an increasingly Jenny-centric band, it has all of the subtlty and depth that the rest of the album seems to lack. Just listen to the wonderful guitar work and take in the oh so softly vocals. I have no idea what it’s about, and honestly I can’t say that I care. It’s all about the sound.

Just when I think Two Gallants are destined to be a band where I appreciate a few songs but never really love any of them, along comes a song like this and completely blows me away. This song alone has rocketed the band to the top of my ever expanding “bands I should check out in more detail when I have the time” list. If they have just one more song as good as this, it’ll be worth it.

Inara George’s vocals are the only reason I like this. Ironically, I don’t really like her solo work or even other Bird & The Bee songs, but this song? The vocals are perfectly crafted, particularly on the verses. It gets a little close to spoken word, which is probably the appeal. More songs like this please.

Well we’re the best band you’ve never heard
We almost always play for crowds of twelve

Quite how apt those lyrics from Tullycraft are I don’t know, but there must be a lot of truth in them. For the best part of ten years, Tullycraft have been putting out perfect pop records, yet most people seem to be completely unaware of them. I myself was in that category until about a year ago, and I don’t tend to consider myself ignorant of quality music.

Still, seeing that I’m finally on board the Tullycraft bus, it’s nice to discover that they will be releasing a brand new album in less than two weeks. If first release The Punks Are Writing Love Songs is any indication, little has changed in the Tullyland. A look at current music trends, jangly guitars and the obligatory ‘ooh-oohs’ are here. While it’s not quite the self aware anthems that Twee and Pop Songs were (both below), it’s three minutes of joy that you’ll be hard pressed to find from other bands.

MP3 Tullycraft – The Punks Are Writing Love Songs (expired)

What others are saying..

“..another in their vast catalog of anthemic pop/twee tunes” – Cable & Tweed

“..despite the fact that their pop sounds are far from what one would normally associate with punk, this song has enough gleeful energy and shouts of “hey!” to do the Ramones proud.” – The Yellow Stereo

“Twee pop pur sang!” – Freakystyle

Tullycraft will release Every Scene Needs A Center on October 23 via Magic Marker Records.

Some of the classics..

MP3 Tullycraft – Twee
MP3 Tullycraft – Our Days In Kansas (expired)
MP3 Tullycraft – Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend’s Too Stupid To Know About (expired)

Tullycraft: Website || Myspace

I think when I come to look back on music in the future, it’s going to be the 1990s that I’m going to get most nostalgic about. Hell, I’m getting nostalgic about that era now already, so I can only assume that’s a feeling that’s going to get stronger with age. The strange thing is that I never really listened to music much in the 90s. My very first album I purchased on CD (‘Feeling Strangely Fine’ by Semisonic) only dates back to 1998. I guess that’s when I started playing attention to ‘alternative’, but only in the “stuff that’s played on the radio” sense. It was another three or four years before I started seriously appreciating what was out in the years.

Five years on, and it seems like all of my absolute favourite albums date from somewhere in the mid-90s. Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’, Pavement’s ‘Slanted & Enchanted’, Ben Folds Five’s ‘Whatever And Ever Amen’ and Belle & Sebastian’s ‘Tigermilk’ all come from that period. Even Counting Crows and Barenaked Ladies, no matter how close to the middle of the road they have drifted now, were putting out some fantastic material back then that I still love now. None of this is to dismiss ‘current’ music. I love a hell of a lot of it (this blog would be pretty hard if I didn’t), but the majority of albums that I’ve continued to play regularly beyond the first month all seem to date from before 2000. I don’t know why this is, only that it is.

Of course, by now I assume that I’ve found pretty much everything important from the past. Logically this should certainly be the case. I like and know my musical tastes on the most part, surely I would have found the relevant bands that fit that criteria from the past ten years. Every so often though, this turns out to be massively wrong and I discover a band I really should have known about earlier. All of which brings us to Tullycraft, a band I’ve only actually known for about a month now but should have known for years.

Tullycraft formed in 1995 and still exist today. In between they have experienced lineup changes and have released four albums. This is about all you need to know in a biographical sense. Musically they are right into the middle of the lovely genre that is twee pop (see ‘Twee’ with it’s chorus line of “you can keep the punk rock, ska, rap, beats / Fuck me, I’m twee”). It’s all so disarmingly sweet that you’re either going to adore this material or develop the urge to throw up upon hearing it, but hopefully it’ll be the former. Jangly guitars, pop culture references and brutally honest yet witty lyrics. How did I live under such a big rock that I had no idea these guys existed for so long?

MP3 Tullycraft – Twee (expired)
MP3 Tullycraft – Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend Is Too Stupid To Know About
MP3 Tullycraft – Josie
MP3 Tullycraft – 8 Great Ways

Tullycraft kindly make a truckload of further mp3s available on the mp3 page of their website. If anyone has any further suggestions for important indie twee pop type bands from this kind of era that I might be missing, leave a comment to let me know about them.

Tullycraft: Website || Myspace