The Twilight Sad have finally announced the details of their hugely anticipated sophomore album Forget The Night Ahead. Trailed by opener ‘Reflections Of The Television’ – which dropped on Pitchfork during May, and forthcoming single ‘I Became A Prostitute’ which is out on August 3rd, the new album will be released in the UK on 5th October via FatCat Records. The full track list is as follows:

1. Reflection Of The Television
2. I Became A Prostitute
3. Seven Years of Letters
4. Made To Disappear
5. Scissors
6. The Room
7. That Birthday Present
8. Floorboards Under The Bed
9. Interrupted
10. The Neighbours Can’t Breathe
11. At The Burnside

As long-time supporters of The Twilight Sad, TLOBF have been given the video to the new single ‘I Became A Prostitute’ days before anyone else. Along with ‘Reflections Of The Television’ (which you can stream here), ‘Prostitute’ marks a visceral return for the Kilsyth quartet. According to sources close to the band, Forget The Night Ahead material is even more harrowing than predecessor Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters – so if you think lines like “the kids are on fire in the bedroom” were dark, prepare to scared shitless.

The video for ‘Prostitute’ is, unsuprisginly, harrowing in it’s own right. A montage of what looks like 1920’s footage of Burlesque clubs from Eastern Europe set against the unmistakable backdrop of James Graham’s Scottish howl and primal force of rhythm section Andy MacFarlane, Craig Orzel and Mark Devine. Never have the band sounded so vital. Continue Reading

Carpet Madness is the debut album from latest Fat Cat signing, Get Back Guinozzi. Full of colour and character, it comprises a unique blossoming of hybrid sources – infectiously poppy, quirky and breezy, with a strong French slant and a wide range of influences taking in the likes of Talking Heads, The Feelies, The Smiths, early B-52’s, King Sunny Adé, Lee Perry, Rip Rig & Panic, Ariel Pink, The Slits, The Cure, Animal Collective, Jonathan Richman, and Serge Gainsbourg.

Infused with the exoticism of reggae, dub, African music, Tropicalia, and Cambodian music from the ’60s, the breadth of sources GBG draws upon, allied by singer Eglantine Gouzy’s skewed narratives and heavily-inflected English, give the project a distinctive individuality. Now comprising a 5-piece band based between London and the South of France, Get Back Guinozzi is driven by two French friends, Gouzy and Fred Landini.

Get Back Guinozzi will undertake their first proper bout of live touring this Autumn. The band’s debut single ‘Low Files Tropical’ will be released on September 14th.

Sample this delightful band below, with their cover of the Junior Mervin classic ‘Police & Thieves’.

mp3:> Get Back Guinozzi: ‘Police & Thieves’

Even to people familiar with avant-garde music, Stórsveit Nix Noltes (translation: “Nick Nolte Big Band”) sound like an intriguing proposition. Made up of between 9 and 12 Icelandic musicians depending on who is available at any given time, Stórsveit are an Eastern European folk music arkestra with a punk-rock aesthetic. Taking the kind of stomping Balkan rhythms that have been so popular in certain circles recently, notably via bands like Beirut, Devotcha, Dresden Dolls and A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Stórsviet take traditional arrangements and turn everything up to eleven. Continue Reading

The story of You Decide is one of a band frequently at war with itself, but some credit is due to The Rank Deluxe because that doesn’t show in the record itself. Even though the band have apparently fought on stage on multiple occasions, and their music juggles rock, punk and reggae influences, they’ve somehow managed to create a fairly cohesive set of songs here. The problem is that too many of these tracks are themselves lacking a concerted direction, and are instead content to send guitars sprawling around aimlessly under the frankly loutish-sounding vocals – on “Even No-one Can Be Someone”, the music only periodically crystallises into the  propulsive rock that the band are trying to achieve, the rest of the time it wriggles and squirms on the edges of its ambition. And that’s true of much of the album – You Decide wants to be aggressive and exciting, but the songs don’t hang together well enough to achieve that. Continue Reading

Photograph credit: Jonathan Dadds

There was a shard-sharp moment during this gig when everything that Frightened Rabbit stand for was frozen into a blinkless instant of time. The band had left the stage after a crazed hour of redrawing the sainted contours of The Midnight Organ Fight and in that low mumbling hum before the encore Scott Hutchinson had evidently snuck back out with an acoustic guitar. I heard him before I saw him – the first strains of ‘Poke’ ‘poke at my iris, why can’t I cry about this’ – and sought out the source of the sound. Once it became apparent that he was at the lip of the stage, alone and washed in blue light, a total silence fell across the room – it bred, the way noise does sometimes, quickly enveloping everyone. I’ve seen reverence at gigs before but this was something else, a giving over, an open gesture of respect for the song and for Hutchinson’s lyrics. Whatever the reason for this – and it might just be something as simple as an honest band writing superbly well about the universal theme of feeling like shit, mostly – Frightened Rabbit have dug their way into people’s hearts. It’s an immense thing to behold. Continue Reading

Perhaps it’s something about PJ Harvey’s crowds. Every time I have been to see the Dorset songstress play, the support act has been largely ignored and rudely talked over. The fact that tonight I have specifically come to see North Dakota singer songwriter Tom Brosseau makes this doubly annoying. Continue Reading

What’s the point of Brakes?

Not a conventional way to start a review, granted, especially one of a band whose previous two albums and a good number of live shows this writer has admired a great deal, but one that comes to mind a couple of times during this album. This is their first since moving from Rough Trade to the ever developing tentacles of FatCat. It’s tempting, see, to wonder how they see themselves at this stage. First LP Give Blood was very much a gonzoid, recorded as-live sideline for four men taking time away from other bands – Eamon Hamilton still playing keyboards and banging a big bass drum in the crowd for British Sea Power, Tom and Alex White just about hanging onto the Electric Soft Parade’s major label status, Marc Beatty’s The Tenderfoot at the time on the periphery of joining his bandmates’ bands and plenty of their Brighton peers on the fast track to indie world stardom. As such, as properly great as it was, it still came across as a gang show with its short songs and punk/country split personality. A year later Eamon had made Brakes his sole outlet and The Beatific Visions kept the momentum and gigging velocity curves heading upwards.

Continue Reading

I have a new love in my life. Just don’t tell my fiancee. They’re a bunch of lads from Scotland… so she might not get TOO jealous… but they’ve convened under the title of We Were Promised Jetpacks (quite possibly one of the best band names for AGES), and they create some of most emotive and stirring music I’ve heard for ages.

Their sound finds itself charging through the middle ground of The Twilight Sad’s dense, atmospheric sheen’s of music and Frightened Rabbit’s guitar-pop and meaningful lyrics of real-life problems and moments. They’ve signed to Fat Cat records as well, which suggests that someone knows what they’re doing on both sides. I’ll be honest, since their debut album These Four Walls was sent to me, I’ve listened to very little else. I love the charging guitars, the soaring choruses, the sheer ENERGY that they’ve got going on. It makes me want to drown in their music. Their wall of guitars sounds like a massive torrent of rain – covering every part of your being, drenching you to the core in their atmospheric wall of noise.

So, I thought, I’d hassle Mike Jetpack and find out a bit more about the band. Continue Reading

The opening question to ask when presented with any live album, and especially a live album that replicates track for track an already existing album (The Midnight Organ Fight [TLOBF review]) is a big WHY? The natural thing to do would be to try to take the record as it is, as something new, and to ignore the studio recordings. Quietly Now, which features mostly acoustic versions of the Midnight… tracks, in the same running order, makes this impossible – you have to look backwards to the studio album and make comparisons, it’s inevitable, and it might be painful. I don’t mind admitting that there’s a lot at stake here for me, I’m uncommonly fond of The Midnight Organ Fight. What to do if this detracts from the genius of that record? What to do? Continue Reading

First things first.

I’m wondering if Sam Jones, big brain behind The Balky Mule and the album The Length Of The Rail is getting bored of the ‘home recording’ tag. A lot of reviews have branded him as a mad professor of sorts, tooling away inside his Melbourne home, connecting, unwiring and re-imagining all sorts of instruments and creating all sorts of obscure sounds to layer his music to the hilt with. It’s not like he’s the first, or indeed the last person to have done this, and while it is a true description, it also ignores the fact that The Length Of The Rail is essentially an album of cute, well thought out acoustic music. Yes, there is something new and distracting going off every two seconds in the background, but it’s like an adolescent getting distracted by fireworks at a fair and not noticing the carny stealing his wallet. Some things matter more than flashiness sometimes. Continue Reading

We welcome Sam Jones, audio home cooking expert and self taught muli-instrumentalist who writes/records/performs under the moniker The Balky Mule. Although one of FatCat Records newest signings Jones is no stranger to the industry:  over the past decade or more he has been a key figure in Bristol’s vibrant post-rock scene, playing alongside his brother Matt in both Crescent and Movietone, as well as in Flying Saucer Attack, Minotaur Shock, and Third Eye Foundation. There are no post-rock flourishes on debut The Length Of The Rail though, the record (which has taken 5 years to complete) is the sound of one man experimenting with his own musical surroundings. Seemingly throwing every instrument lying around into an organic lo-fi melting pot of sweet pop ditties and wyrd folk.

We caught up with Sam a few weeks ago to find about a little more about his sound, influences and inspiration. You can download an exclusive never before heard song ‘Cymbet’ at the bottom of this post. Continue Reading

Posthumous Success, Tom Brosseau’s first new album of studio material in two years and his third FatCat full-length release (8th in total), is due for release May 11th.

Posthumous Success marks development in recording styles for Tom: 2006’s Empty Houses Are Lonely was collected and compiled from previous releases, while 2007’s Cavalier – Brosseau’s acclaimed 2nd FatCat release – was produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Tracy Chapman) and recorded in one week in one studio, Toybox Studio in Bristol. For this record, however, Adam Pierce produced half the tracks on Posthumous Success in upstate NY, alongside Ethan Rose’s work on the other half of the record in Portland, Oregon. Two producers, two sets of guest musicians, recorded on separate US coasts, the album’s effect is a collection of different styles, different instrumentation, different intricacies in different places, but always held together by Tom’s captivating, vibrato-soaked voice, his ability to let single notes gently resonate with a near-unearthly emotional grasp and his evident, laudable reluctance to bow to fleeting trends.

Brosseau recently spoke of the inspiration behind the album title: “The title of the album I’ve been carrying around since my freshman year. It’s of the last chapter in the life of Albert Camus, the Nobel prize French author who died in a car wreck. Camus had been working on something at the time. It would not be published for 35 years – The First Man.”

Here’s a recent Bandstand Busking session from Brosseau, ‘The Cut, part 2′ recorded last winter at Arnold Circus in London.

mp3:> Tom Brosseau: ‘Favourite Colour Blue’

 Words: Rich Hughes | Photographs: Rich Thane

On a cold, icy, and transport infringing evening, the two Rich’s at TLOBF Towers convened for their first 2009 meet up. Replenished by a wonderful curry and accompanying Cobra Beers, they felt, initially at least, out of place at the all-ages show at The Junction.

With no queue at the bar, we propped it up commenting on the yoof of today and their never changing like for all things EMO. Alas, by the time Brakes turned up to finish the night, the crowd had thinned. Where many an act might have grumbled, Brakes gave it even more, engaging the crowd and taking requests. Eamon was resplendent in his NASA spacesuit which, at times, dangerously caught the light and illuminated the Junction. Playing older material, plus tasters from their highly anticipated debut on Fat Cat records, those that stayed were treated to a live band at the very peak of their powers.

Brakes on MySpace

When it comes to a short, sharp and sweet attack of the senses to blow the winter cobwebs away – nobody does it better than the mighty Brakes. Their 2005 debut album Give Blood was a master class in 30 second seething pop punk energy – 16 songs in 25 minutes – amazing. Whilst  2006 follow up The Beatific Visions veered towards a more standard song structure approach (whatever that is). Regardless, they’re back and judging by the sound of the new single ‘Hey Hey’ in very fine form indeed. With a freshly inked deal with FatCat Records, the new Brakes album Touchdown will be released on April 27th.

Enjoy the video for ‘Hey Hey’ below – It features a giant pink doughnut rolling down a hill so it’s frankly essential viewing. Catch Brakes live at the following shows:

28 Jan – Proud Galleries, Camden, London,
30 Jan – The Boiler Room, Guildford
01 Feb – Moho Live, Manchester (After Show)
02 Feb – Tommy’s Bar, Cardiff
03 Feb – The Cavern, Exeter
05 Feb – Fuzz Club, Sheffield
06 Feb – Radar Club, Cambridge
07 Feb – The Albert, Brighton

mp3:> Brakes: ‘Crystal Tunings’
(taken from the forthcoming album Touchdown, released 27th April via FatCat) 

Well – Brakes news seems to be like buses – you don’t see any for ages and then three come along at once!

Brakes have found a new home on Brighton’s favourite indie label, FatCat Records. After two successful releases with Rough Trade Records, Brakes will appear, on April 20th, on their new home, FatCat, with the release of Touchdown. The album is preceded with two singles, ‘Hey Hey’ and ‘Don’t Take Me To Space (Man)’.

Brakes is Eamon Hamilton (vocals/guitar), Thomas White (guitar/vocals), Marc Beatty (Bass) and Alex White (drums). Containing previous and current members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade, Tenderfoot and The Pipettes.

For a short period of time, you can download a brand new track off Touchdown, titled ‘Crystal Tunings’ here!

Tourdates:
Jan 28 @ Proud Galleries – London
Feb 5 @ Fuzz – Sheffield

Frightened Rabbit at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, 02/10/08. Photo credit: Lucy Johnston

Up and coming folk troubadours Frightened Rabbit played to a sold-out crowd at the ever-trendy Hoxton Bar and Kitchen. Crowd and industry alike were clearly amused by the eclectic choice of supports, but obviously blown away by the headliners.

Baddies opened proceedings with their spin on what can only be termed as Kaiser Chief-rock. Before any of you shrink back at fear from that suggestion, it isn’t intended as criticism, only description. In reality, Baddies are comparable to the Kaisers when they were on good form, ‘I Predict A Riot’ era, before the public realised that loving a band too much ultimately leads to hating them even more. Shouty, adrenaline pumped Oi-pop seemed to be the overall vibe of Baddies’ set. Their songs were well written and came across as powerful enough live, taking a pop sound but throwing in the occasional unexpected guitar flick or Klaxons-esque vocal harmony here or there. However, as with the Kaisers, there were times when Baddies did come across as slightly cliche, with their lead singer constantly feeling the need to point at a largely non-moving and ambivalent crowd in the style of a military dictator. The smart shirt/retro instrument image did nothing but solidify the indie stereotype as well. All in through, Baddies played a solid set and if, like the audience, you can look past the surface flaws, it’s easy to see a band with a hell of a lot of potential in the pop world. Continue Reading

Welcome to the second edition of our new monthly feature: ART OF NOISE. It’s a simple concept. We ask bands we love to make us a mixtape and tell us exactly why they picked each track. Thus, you get some free kick ass music AND find out more about some of your favourite artists taste. Everyone literally, is a winner.

This months mix tape was curated by Meredith Godreau, the brainchild behind FatCat Records’ newest act Gregory & The Hawk. Her beautiful debut album Moenie & Kitchie (TLOBF review) is available through all good outlets now and she is about to embark on a TLOBF sponsored tour of the UK. Click here for the dates.

The nine tracks here show clearly where Godreau’s roots lie.. The Sundays, Sebadoh, The Velvet Underground, plus tracks from TLOBF heroes The American Analog Set and Guided By Voices. Needless to say it’s an essential mix.

1. The Juliana Hatfield Three: ‘My Sister’
Juliana Hatfield was a role model of mine from the Blake Babies days.

2. Sebadoh: ‘Social Medicine’
I got introduced to Sebadoh last year through the song ‘Brand New Love’, which I couldn’t stop listening to. This song was new to me when I added it to the mix, but i immediately liked the slow unfolding.

3. Karl Blau: ‘Before Telling Dragons’
Mike and I first heard about Karl Blau this past August when we visited the Secretly Canadian office and Nick gave us a copy of the brand new album Nature’s Got Away. This track immediately stood out because of the funny way the melody goes with the words and the addictive drum beat.

4. The Softies: ‘Awful Mess’
Used to dabble in The Softies, but hadn’t listened to them in years. I found this song and remembered how pretty it was.

5. The Sundays: ‘You’re Not The Only One I Know’
The Sundays are the perfect band, Harriet Wheeler is the perfect singer, and all the songs are perfect. I picked this one cause I like the singing riffs at the end.

6. Mew: ‘A Dark Design’
I just heard mew last week and mistook it for mum doing a My Bloody Valentine cover version.

7. The American Analog Set: ‘Sharp Briar’
A nice song that sounds good loud.

8. Guided By Voices: ‘Everywhere with helicopter’
Another old favorite of mine, I think to love Guided By Voices involves listening to whole albums at a time, but this is maybe a good representation of their energy ad sound.

9. The Velvet Underground: ‘Stephanie Says’
A cheesy song for the end of the mix.

Download: Art Of Noise #2 : : ‘Gregory & The Hawk’ [.zip file]

Photograph by Lucy Jay

Frightened Rabbit have recorded a new song entitled ‘Last Tango in Brooklyn’ for Australian zine The Lifted Brow. Here is Pitchfork’s take: “It’s a view looking back after a relationship has ended, and what once seemed bright and lovely has now turned cold and lonely. Starting with an acoustic guitar and building to a sad hymnal, fleshed out with chanting and tambourine, ‘Last Tango in Brooklyn’ shows a quieter, less anthemic side of Frightened Rabbit. It’s a desolate ode to something gone, that feeling not so much that the world is over but that things used to be a little more fun.”

Grab the song here!

mp3:> Frightened Rabbit: ‘Last Tango In Brooklyn’

Toronto’s Ten Kens are about to embark on their inaugural UK tour, and to celebrate they have created a brand new animated video for ‘Spanish Fly’, one of the standout tracks on their eponymous debut. Instead of releasing a single, the band is giving away a free download of the song that inspired the video. The video was developed and created independently by close friends of the band, The Blackbelt Kids. It was directed by fellow Toronto native Kareem Thompson and animated by Peter Auld and Louis Norris.

You can download an mp3 version of ‘Spanish Fly’ by clicking here. All they ask is that you sign up to their mailing list.. Not too much to ask, is it now??

We caught up with the guys a few weeks ago. If you happened to miss the interview, you can check it out here.

November
28 – London, The Lexington
29 – Birmingham, Barfly*
30 – Glasgow, Nice N’Sleazys*

December
1 – Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire
2 – York, The Duchess
4 – Manchester, The Roadhouse*
5 – Leeds, The Cockpit*
6 – Cardiff , Clwb Ifor Beach*
8 – London, ICA*
9 – London, Blow Up Metro
10 – London, 229**

* supporting A Place To Bury Strangers
**with Stricken City

A young American trio with the scope of Sigur Ros and the peculiar, organic ethereality of Efterklang, with a touch of Animal Collective and Boards of Canada for good measure, Our Brother The Native are a very exciting proposition. Their last full-length “Make Amends, For We Are Merely Vessels” was a promising slab of post-rock, if a little too in thrall to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and other purveyors of ten-minute slow-burn epics but this 5-track EP is a far more succinct, subtle and to my mind beguiling effort. Continue Reading