Music.

Yo La Tengo - And The Glitter Is Gone

This shouldn’t really be any good - 15 solid minutes of a 2 note bass line, a simple descending guitar riff and a jam-session drum beat played by a trio of frankly normal-looking 30-somethings.

But something makes it absolutely electrifying. Is it the nonchalance with which Iris Kaplan asks “Ready?” at the start, betraying nothing of the mayhem to ensue? Is it the single-minded mania with which he attacks his road-weary Fender Jazzmaster? Is it the striking setting - a New York rooftop before the retreating sun, falling darker with each cymbal crash?

Or is it the hopelessness of one Youtuber’s comment below - ‘Tabs? Anyone got tabs?’

The Durutti Column

—Never Known

The Durutti Column - Never Known

‘I was always doing my own music. Even when I was in the punk band, halfway through a gig, I’d sit down on the floor, turn my back on the audience and play a little guitar piece. The audience would be flabbergasted, infuriated and throw things at me – but I was a bit of a confrontationalist and enjoyed this immensely.’

 Vini Reilly

The Durutti Column were Tony Wilson’s first signing to the now-legendary Factory Records. While label-mates including Joy Division and The Happy Mondays erupted out of Manchester and ignited the city’s cultural explosion, paving the way for (among many others) The Smiths, The Stone Roses and later Oasis, The Durutti Column drifted languidly in the shadows cast by the spotlight trained on others.

The band, a vehicle of fame-shy guitarist and songwriter/composer Vini Reilly (to whom the above quote is attributed), have released over 25 albums in their time and Never Known is from 1981’s LC. Reilly is often overlooked on ‘greatest guitarist’ compilations but in my opinion is one of the best this country has ever produced. His flowing, twisting, emotive play sets the music apart from anything else I’ve ever heard and evokes imagery by itself that the most gifted of lyricists would be proud of. In fact one of the greatest lyricists of his generation, Morrissey, chose Reilly to play guitar on his solo release Viva Hate.

But while Jonny Marr, the Manchester guitar-hero whose shoes Reilly filled with his work with Morrissey, has just released a new album and is currently touring the country, Reilly’s story has unfolded in a far sadder fashion. With his guitar playing hampered by three successive strokes he found himself unable to work and descended into debt, culminating in his loyal fans sending donations so he could pay his rent. A terrible situation for anyone to be in but one that seems almost criminal in Vini’s case – a man who has given so much to music and so much enjoyment to his fans. Apparently his situation is improving, he is regaining his guitar ability and is even planning on releasing a new album, so hopefully the darkest period is over.   

Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller - Tender

For me, the highlight of Saturday’s Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Royal Albert Hall. Coming after a low key opening by Gruff Rhyss and his metronome, and a ‘difficult’ freeform jam with beat poet Michael Horovitz, this was more like it.

Damon, Noel and Graham took centre stage to play out this Blur staple, accompanied by Paul Weller on drums (because why not), and not even Coxon’s red trousers could distract from the moment. 

The inimitable, irreplaceable John Martyn, performing I’d Rather Be The Devil on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

The Black Angels - Evil Things

With the start of this year’s Austin Psych Fest looming (Press tickets, anyone? I’m kind of a big deal…) The Black Angels are preparing to release their new album Indigo Meadow. The carrot dangling from their big fat fuzzy stick is this track, Evil Things.

It’s perhaps a bit heavier than Phosphene Dream - heavy-duty riffage driving the song into a whirling wall of sound. It’ll be interesting to hear whether this is a direction the rest of the album takes when it’s released on April 2nd.

Goat - Goathead

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It was a tough decision to choose which track to feature from Goat’s World Music – my favourite album of 2012. Drop the needle anywhere on the vividly coloured vinyl (yellow, in my case) and you’re in for a pretty wild Goat-ride. I considered writing about Run to your Mama, Let it Bleed or Goatman, but in the end the wah-drenched psych-soaking of Goathead (they obviously focused their creative energies on the music rather than the track names) got the nod.

 Nobody seems to know much about Goat. They’re Swedish apparently, hailing from the northern village of Korpilombolo - A village with an enigmatic history of witch-doctors, voodoo worship and haunting curses, if the band and their press release are to be believed. It certainly makes sense when you listen to the album; it’s a trance-like, droning swirl of a sound with frenetic chanted vocals that doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve heard before. It’s intoxicating. Every track has a different style and feel - Kraut rock, funk, psychedelia, infiltrated with Arabic and African influences - but it comes together as a cohesive and incredibly distinctive whole. The most original and confident album I’ve heard in a long time – and a debut album at that. Up with the Goat. 

Kurt Vile

—Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Day

Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Day

Kurt Vile

Are you sitting comfortably? Really comfortably? Actually, no – go and lie down. That’s right, relax. No background noise please – TV off. Have you got a cup of tea? No? It’s ok, I’ll wait. In the unlikely case that you’re reading this in a hotel room, now would be an excellent time to make use of your do-not-disturb sign.  And make sure your phone is off – I don’t want you to be distracted for the next nine minutes. Ready? Ok. Press play.

Kurt Vile is back. Well, he’s nearly back. His new album – Wakin on a Pretty Daze - is hitting the shops (and internet-tubes) on the 8th April through Matador Records. The eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2011’s excellent Smoke Ring for My Halo is, according to the press-release,summed-up by the lead track, Wakin on a Pretty Day. If this is the case, we’re in for a real treat. It’s a nine-and-a-half minute rolling, floating flight through luscious layers of guitar and mellow vocal. It’s hypnotic. It’s classic, it’s On the Beach, it’s Laurel Canyon, 1969. But it’s new, it’s now. And it goes on for ages. It’s glorious. I’m going to play it again.

Live Review - Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley – Cambridge Corn Exchange – 22nd February 2013

‘You know how some artists have plants in their audience? Looks like I’ve got a vegetable tonight.’

It was almost worth the admission fee for the patter alone. Hawley’s been touring off-and-on for 24 years and has developed a certain style of handling his audience – quick-wittedly putting down (tongue-in-cheek) hecklers one minute and offering insights into songs another (on the creation of floating ballad Don’t Stare At The Sun he discloses: ‘I wrote this song while I was flying a kite with my son. It’s a bit of a boring premise for a song I suppose… But I was off my face on acid at the time’). It was clear from his stage persona that he’s a man who’s been doing this for a very long time and has confidence in himself and his band. The confidence is well placed.

In a set mostly dominated by songs from his newest release, the excellent Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Hawley showed his full range of songwriting. Starting off with the atmospheric, slow-building Standing at the Sky’s Edge, we saw the crooning Richard performing Open Up Your Door, the tender Richard in Soldier On (accompanied by some brilliant lap-steel work by guitarist Shez Sheridan), The psychedelic Richard in There’s a Storm Coming, and quite often the face-melting guitar wizard Richard. He really can play. The gig ended with a quite ridiculous outro-solo in The Ocean – check out a live video on Youtube.

One thing that stood out for me was the sound-scape created by the band. Standing at the Sky’s Edge is a record laden with effects and unusual sounds, many of which I had assumed were created or altered in the studio after recording. The band created an almost identical sound live however, and it was probably the best sounding gig I’ve been to. Also, as good as Hawley was, his band mates were his equal – Shez Sheridan provided excellent guitar accompaniment, great drums and bass work by Dean Beresford and Colin Eliot respectively, and an almost laughably nonchalant Jon Trier on synths/keyboards (‘and eBay’).

The aforementioned ticket price was very reasonable at £22 – cheap in my opinion to see a sublime electric troubadour at the very top of his game. He has some very sexy guitars too. If you’re into that kind of thing. 

The Courteeners

—Van Der Graaff

The Courteeners - Van Der Graaff

The Courtneers

Van Der Graaff is a track from The Courteener’s new release Anna. The terrain explored on Anna is another big step away away from the jagged, sharp, special songs of St. Jude - the release of which feels a long time ago now - and I’m not entirely sure I’m on-board with the new direction.

When it works, such as with Van Der Graaff, it works very well indeed. The verse riff in VDG is dripping with the edgy swagger that fans originally fell in love with when The Courteeners arrived on the scene back in 2007. The problem is that too often Anna descends into a genero-anthem-rock sludge that reminds me a bit of (sorry) a poor man’s Coldplay. Maybe Coldplay if they were tasked to write a song in an hour in a school music lesson.

This may seem a bit harsh but I had high hopes for the new album and can’t help but feel they’re heading in the wrong direction rather than the right. I saw Liam Fray perform an acoustic set at the weekend, before listening to the album, and I was highly impressed by the new songs he played. He is a superb songwriter, lyricist and performer - even when stripped right back to an acoustic guitar - but this just makes it all the more frustrating that the album tracks have been produced and instrumented in such a mass-appeal, bland way. And if you don’t believe me, take a listen to ‘Welcome to the Rave’ and tell me something’s not gone wrong somewhere.

Liam Fray

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding - Footscray Station

Scott & Charlene's Wedding

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are a collective of Australian musicians headed up by musical octopus Craig Dermody (many tentacles, many pies – other projects include Divorced, Spider Vomit and Lindsey Low-Hand) whose Para Vista Social Club was one of my favourite albums of the last year. Originally recorded in 2010 in a Melbourne warehouse and released on a super-limited (hand-painted) run of 200 vinyl records - which of course are now rarer than seeing a modern-day goth (where did they all go?) - it received a much-deserved world re-release by Critical Heights Records in November.

Footscray Station is one of the stand-out tracks of the album and encapsulates many of the album’s themes in its 3 minutes and 26 seconds. It’s drenched in melancholic sunshine and punches along disdainfully but relentlessly while Dermody fires his slacker vitriol at the listener. His writing is blunt and evocative while still being deeply poetic - a style that not many lyricists can pull off - and the punky yet vulnerable delivery makes the songs. The driving guitar work throughout by Luke Horton (Love of Diagrams) fits perfectly and helps define the feel of the album – lazy freneticism.

The album as a whole bears overlying themes of boredom, crap jobs and a general dis-satisfaction with how things are - themes that I imagine might ring true with many people around the world right now. These are songs that mean something to Dermody. Other tracks to check out include Born to Lose, Epping Lineand Rejected – as well as those on the 2012 split LP with fellow Australian duo Peak Twins.

 

Since recording Para Vista Dermody moved to New York, formed a US line-up of S&CW and apparently is coming quite close to finishing another album. I’ll be looking out for it.