This album is a hard one to review. Oh yes. Not because it’s bad, its brilliant, and I’m so impressed by That’s The Spirit (Ottawan native Ben Wilson, with some help from a few good friends) that to put into words how much i like this album would take up 3 pages and probably only consist of the word ‘incredible’. And that wouldn’t make a good review. When I do try, whenever I get a good point in my head, I automatically forget it because im too lost in the music. This album feels like an album. It isn’t a collection of songs loosely bundled together. It’s a positive cloud of music, something almost tangible. When Staying Places is playing, an atmosphere is created that is ethereal, almost dream-like and at the same time, a focused concentration of well placed instruments and vocal lines. In fact, if I wasn’t woken up slightly by the vintage piano introduction of ‘It’s Curtains For You’ (a track that drifts across your mental horizon halfway through this release, and then leaves after less than two minutes), Staying Places would have me in a trance from start to finish. Continue Reading
I rarely get any use out of MySpace nowadays - I’m either being spammed by some American cheerleader called ‘Brandy’ who thinks I’m really ‘hot’ and wants to get to know me a little better (when it’s most likely a Nigerian scammer planning to take all my money and/or kill me) or I’m being persued by some band or another who’s influences are Oasis, The Fratellis and Razorlight. *shivers* Really, it happens.
But without MySpace I wouldn’t have discovered this nugget of info. Posting on her blog, an excitable Sarah Siskind has just announced that she will be the opening act for the European Bon Iver shows in December. Oh yes.
Those of you that aren’t familiar with Siskind’s music will almost certainly be interested in knowing not only have Bon Iver been finishing their recent shows with her wonderful ballad ‘Lovin’s For Fools’ but her double EP Studio. Living Room was a huge influence on Justin whilst he was recording For Emma, Forever Ago. Check out the aforementioned track below. It’s a belter. And it might just make you cry. A little.
Those dates then:
December
3 - Dublin, National Stadium
6 - Belgium, Gent Vooruit
7- London, Apollo Victoria Theatre
We’re still on a bit of a Bon Iver high here at TLOBF Towers. After last weeks epic show and the announcement of an all new London show in December and what not. Anyhoo - just stumbling around the interweb and I found this. Via MySpace no less - a live session Justin and the boys did a week or so ago. It features four live tracks from the much loved For Emma, Forever Ago - the title track (which is also the new single), ‘Flume’, ‘Blindsided’ and ‘Lump Sum’. The version of ‘For Emma’ is especially lovely - a little more stripped back than the one heard live last week. Also, if you wander over to the MySpace page - you can watch all the videos plus some interview footage to boot. Neato.
It’s been quite a year for live music, 2008; an emotional roller-coaster of euphoria and heady nostalgia and all sorts of superlatives you might reach for to try to describe a clenched throat that doesn’t know if it’s holding back ecstatic cheers or warm tears.
There was the 12 Bar last month, a fragile Edwyn Collins leaning into the protective, wiry shoulder of Roddy Frame, straining resistant limbs and lips into familiar old shapes for a tiny crowd of shiny-eyed Dundonians. There was the Roundhouse a few weeks before that, Kevin Shields’ mouth yawning wide and silent into the din, my skin rippling as though the waves that buffeted the front row were real and not mere sound. And there was the holy still air of St Giles church, in the balmy early days of June, when Justin Vernon raised a guitar to the heavens and 300 faithful erupted into triumphant thanksgiving. It’s pure luck to be granted one such fleeting, epiphanical moment a year, never mind two from one quiet Wisconsinite. Iconic performances seem to have littered the summer months like chewing-gum wrappers, and now another has just fallen at our feet and blown past, reminding me of Winnaretta Singer’s line about the rare and particular breed of music that reminds us that we have “a reason for living on this rock: to live in the beautiful kingdom of sounds.” Continue Reading
Last night Bon Iver played the biggest show of his career to date at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. One of the most mesmerising shows TLOBF has seen in a long, long time. We think Justin was as moved as the few thousand people who witnessed it. Review coming soon - I for one am still finding it difficult to string a coherent sentence together… In the meantime - we have great pleasure in announcing this ‘lil tid bit. Literally just hit our inbox..
London, Friday 12 September 2008 – The critically acclaimed Bon Iver have today announced that they will be one of the first live music acts to perform a very special and intimate show at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre on the 7th December.
Bon Iver (an intentional mis-spelling / adaptation of ‘Bon Hiver’, French for ‘Good Winter’) is the work of Justin Vernon, a former member of Wisconsin quartet DeYarmond Edison. Vernon, who wrote the material in 2006 whilst living in a log cabin, used very little equipment - just a couple of microphones, a baritone guitar, two drums, a horn, a reverb pedal. These few items, when combined with enough space, allowed the songs that form this record become far more than sum of their parts.
Vernon explains : “I recognize that the record is enigmatic and special in a strange way. I can’t take full credit for it, and I was the only one there.”
Jagjaguwar and Dead Oceans, the consistently fine spin off labels from Secretly Canadian have oodles of interested signings and new releases coming up - so, in a condensed form, heres everything in one bite sized-ish post. Here goes…
Bon Iver
Signed in the US to Jagjaguwar (4AD in the UK) Bon Iver appeared on New York radio station WMYC this week. You can stream the appearence below, which features mega performances of ‘Creature Fear’ and spine tingle inducing rendiditon of ‘Flume’. Plus a chat about the album, which to be fair doesn’t really reveal too much. Just the same old “so I hear you recorded this in your fathers log cabin” etc etc.. Still worth it for the songs though - listen below:
If mp3’s are more your bag, then you can still grab the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G live session from Daytrotter.
Also, watch this recent footage of Bon Iver and labelmates Bowerbirds perform Sarah Siskind’s ‘Lovin’s For Fools’ shot at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC. Hopefully they’ll perform it together at Shepherds Bush Empire next month - Bowerbirds are supporting Bon Iver at the sold out show on 11th September. Speaking of Bowerbirds, Brooklyn Vegan has some real nice shots of a recent show of theirs, here.
Women
Jagjaguwar will release Women’s self-titled debut full length on October 7th, 2008 throughout the world (January, 2009 release in the UK, and Canadian label Flemish Eye is releasing the record in Canada.) The band will tour the U.S., Canada and Europe in support of the album throughout 2008, and tour dates will be announced soon.
The band’s debut was recorded by Sub Pop and Flemish Eye artist Chad VanGaalen over 4 months on ghettoblasters and old tape machines in his basement, an outdoor culvert and a crawlspace. Sometimes light and spacious, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight, Women hint at the Velvet Underground, Swell Maps or This Heat; a lo-fi masterpiece cloaked in layers of vibrato and guitar wash.
After witnessing the chaos and energy of a These Are Powers live set, Dead Oceans were immediately enthralled with this band, and after a long courtship and some hot and heavy dating, they have finally announced the start of a long and fruitful union. First, Dead Oceans will re-release Taro Tarot and Terrific Seasons in October 2008, followed by an LP of new material in the first part of 2009. The band will support the re-releases with tours of both North America and Europe this autumn.
Secretly Canadian have a couple of decent releases coming up too.. David Vandervelde’s sophomore album Waiting For The Sunrise is released next week in the States (22nd Sept in the UK) - fairly decent easy listening fare. Look out for a review soon. Also, Damien Jurado is set to release his new LP Caught In The Trees on 9th September in the States (27th Oct in the UK) - judging by the lead track ‘Gillian Was A Horse’ we’re in for some what of a treat. I can never understand though why we have to wait so long for UK release dates..
Oh - and one last thing, Dead Oceans new signings The Donkeys will release their staggering self-titled debut on September 8th. It really is quite fantastic - download an mp3 below and see for yourselves. Country-rock at its very finest. Look out for a review nearer the time of release.
Land Of Talk are to release their new album Some Are Lakes on October 6th. The follow up to last years Applause Cheer Boo Hiss will be released by One Little Indian in the UK and Saddle Creek in the US. The album was recorded in Montreal with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) - which I’m sure, is going to make the album sell a few extra units..
Some Are Lakes track listing:
1. Yuppy Flu
2. Death By Fire
3. The Man Who Breaks Things (Dark Shuffle)
4. Some Are Lakes
5. Give Me Back My Heart Attack
6. It’s Okay
7. Young Bridge
8. Corner Phone
9. Got A Call
10. Troubled
If we’re to quote The Cranberries (and why shouldn’t you?), “Everybody else is doing it, so why can’t we?”. As we’ve past the halfway point in this year of 2008, it seemed like a good time to look back. What have been the musical higlights of the year so far? We’ve had some absolutely corking albums released, from Fleet Foxes genre defying debut, to Elbow’s continued cultured and heartwarming release. It might surprise some of our readers what’s ended up on this list but one thing this exercise has made us realise, is that come the end of the year, there’s going to be a big pile of albums under the ‘Excellent’ heading…
So how did we decide on the final 10 albums? We asked all of our writers to email in their favourite 5 releases of the year thus far. Each album voted for was then given a point and entered into a highly technical spreadsheet - which left us with the following records… Continue Reading
The reputation of Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, precedes him like a particularly florid trumpet fanfare. Never mind the insular indie music press - if you’ve opened a Sunday supplement or flipped past Jools Holland recently, you’ll have seen his emotionally wrenching debut For Emma, Forever Ago hyped almost beyond the limits of logic or sanity. The tale of For Emma’s creation entered modern mythology pretty much immediately: Vernon had spent years chasing success with a number of bands, most lately Wisconsin four-piece DeYarmond Edison (true), endured a difficult breakup (true) and a nervous breakdown (untrue), retreated to a remote log cabin (true) and spent three icy months in total isolation, his only sustenance a few bits of melted snow and a deer he killed with his bare hands (almost true).
It hardly matters now what actually happened and what’s just wild exaggeration. Without even planning to record an album, Vernon emerged into the spring of 2007 with nine tracks of atmospheric, minimal acoustic guitar and octave-spanning vocals, layered into an intensely personal, primal sonic epiphany. (He’s said, beautifully and a little spookily, “I recognise that the record is enigmatic and special in a strange way. I can’t take full credit for it, and I was the only one there.”) He self-released For Emma to instant Pitchfork acclaim, was picked up by Jagjaguar in the US and 4AD in the UK and took this year’s SXSW by storm. Still, he’s a thoughtful, funny, humble soul who is more interested in international politics and music with a conscience. Continue Reading
