The Bookhouse Boys aren’t one of those bands who like to keep their primary influences to themselves. The North London nine-piece, incorporating two trumpeters and two drummers, named themselves after the vigilante secret society on Twin Peaks and list David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti and Ennio Morricone as their top three influences on Myspace. The group photos back it up, eight men in dark suits plus sole female (front and centre, obviously) sporting matching red dress and lipstick. Continue Reading

Below is the first glimpse of new material from Secret Machines in their recently revamped line-up. Called ‘Atomic Heels’ this is the lead single from the hotly anticipated self-titled third album, due for release on Jan 19th 2009.

Bruce Springsteen’s new album Working on a Dream has been set for a January 27 release on Columbia Records.

The new album was recorded with the E Street Band and features twelve new Springsteen compositions plus two bonus tracks and is the fourth collaboration between Springsteen and Brendan O’Brien, who produced and mixed the album.

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working on a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival

Bonus tracks:
The Wrestler
A Night with the Jersey Devil

Springsteen commented on the recording process, saying “Towards the end of recording ‘Magic,’ excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O’Brien heard the new songs, he said, ‘Let’s keep going.’ Over the course of the next year, that’s just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year’s tour. I hope ‘Working on a Dream’ has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we’ve ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end.”

This week’s album working title: “Quit Palin games with my heart”.

We escape from New York to find the mammoth fridge that houses our provisions in Bridgeport has broken. No exciting explosion to report, just a quiet crossing over to an afterlife for defunct kitchen appliances. Had we foreseen this, we could have asked it to say hello to the Homer Simpson sandwich toaster that gave up on Justin days before he left Old Blighty, but as stated in an earlier dispatch, Fanfarlo are proficient at overcoming such setbacks and we battle on regardless and milk-less. Continue Reading

On 16 March 2009 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is to release a brand new album, called Beware!, on Domino.

Joining Bonny deep in the mix of Beware, the roll-call of top players include the band (Josh Abrams, Jennifer Hutt, Emmett Kelly and Michael Zerang) and special guests (Dee Alexander, Leroy Bach, Jim Becker, Robert Cruz, DV DeVincentis, Jon Langford, Greg Leisez, Rob Mazurek, Nicole Mitchell and Azita Youseffi)!

Beware Tracklisting:
1. Beware Your Only Friend
2. You Can’t Hurt Me Now
3. My Life’s Work
4. Death Final
5. Heart’s Arms
6. You Don’t Love Me
7. You Are Lost
8. I Won’t Ask Again
9. I Don’t Belong to Anyone
10. There Is Something I Have To Say
11. I Am Goodbye
12. Without Work, You Have Nothing
13. Untitled

Bonny does not tour in support of records, however he will tour simultaneous with the record release, even in major markets. Beware! indeed…

Cat Power started the year with Jukebox, her second album of cover songs and a tribute to the great vocalists who had influenced her over the years.

And now, to end the year, Cat Power is to release another set of covers, recorded at the same productive sessions as Jukebox, and now finally released.

The remaining unreleased tracks are to be aired this December in the form of Dark End Of The Street, a six-track gatefold double-10″ and download EP (tracklisting below).

Tracklisting:
1. Dark End Of The Street (James Carr/Aretha Franklin) *
2. Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
3. Ye Auld Triangle (The Pogues) *
4. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) (Otis Redding)
5. Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Sandy Denny/Fairport Convention) *
6. It Ain’t Fair (Aretha Franklin) *

* denotes entirely unreleased song

I wish we were Pitchfork. I mean, I wish we were Pitchfork back last year or whatever when it could give something an ‘8.6’ and then that band would be immediately elevated to indie rock and roll stardom, I think the last people to do that were The Dodos or Fleet Foxes, which is maybe why I stopped trusting them so much (lol). But I wish we could be Pitchfork because then I could review this - this record by this band Eagle and Talon who I can barely find anything about even on the internet and rocket them to immediate indie rock and roll stardom because it really is that good.
Continue Reading

Micah Blue Smaldone is a former punk scenester from New England who has moved on to sparse, rootsy folk. The Red River, his fourth solo record, is dominated by meditative, neo-traditional acoustica with an eye for theatre. While intimate in scale it much less personal than, say, Bon Iver, but more focused on the kind of dust-choked cinematics of recent albums by the similarly named Micah P Hinson or Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, albeit with a less bawdy vocal style. Fans of Will Oldham and Iron & Wine’s sparser material may find much to enjoy in the rusted, bleak atmospherics here. The Thrill Jockey press release tells me Smaldone sounds ‘like a dead man’, which may seem like hyperbole but there is something spectral about the old-time quality of the music. Like a less wildly impressionistic Grizzly Bear, there is a deliberately spooked mood to The Red River - the sense that Smaldone is trying to conjure the ghosts of a past, not just resurrect the music itself. The production quality is as if it was processed through an analogue radio: the skeletal picked guitar, vagabond banjo and viola all sound somehow starched. Continue Reading

Loney Dear

Dear John, the new album by Loney Dear (note they’ve dropped the comma) has finally been given a US release date of 27th January and will come out via Polyvinyl (home to Of Montreal) rather than Sup Pop. A UK release date to my knowledge hasn’t been announced as yet - but the record will be coming out via the EMI imprint Regal.

Back in last months interview, Emil talked to us a little about how pleased he was with first single ‘Airport Surroundings’ and described it as “like the long-haired big sister to the obvious cute younger sister of I Am John”.

It’s certainly a lovely introduction to the new album. Featuring all the elements that make up the ‘Loney sound’ - tinkling synths, handclaps, orchestral flourishes and Svanängen’s trademark whisper of a voice. Listen for yourself below. And read all about the new record here, in our exclusive interview.

Emil will be flying over to London for his only UK show this side of 2009 as he plays The Line Of Best Fit’s club night ILL FIT at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch. The show is on 8th December and it is totally free entry. How can you resist??

FrYars has revealed details of his debut album, due for release in March 2009. Entitled Dark Young Hearts, the album was produced with ex-Clor guitarist Luke Smith over the course of 2008, and will be released on FrYars’ own frYarcorp label.

The album includes favourites ‘The Ides’ and ‘Olive Eyes’ from frYars two acclaimed EPs, and continues to develop the themes that frYars outlined in these early releases: conflicts between reason and passion, between reality and spirituality… or so it says here…

There’s also a guest apperance from Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan on backing volcals on new track ‘Visitors’ - which will be available as a free download from 8 December. Watch this space…

The follow-up to Morrissey’s Ringleader Of The Tormentors has been pencilled in for a February 23rd 2009, reports a variety of sources… and will be titled Years Of Refusal

It was originally supposed to be released back in September, but was put on hold due to some nasrt record company wranglings…

The album is produced by Jerry Finn and will be preceded by a single, ‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’, featuring vocals from Chrissie Hynde on the B-side, ‘Shame Is The Name’.

According to Billboard.com, Ray Davies has been speaking about writing new material for a Kinks reunion.

It’s all going to be about the quality though, according to Davies: “We’ve started a little bit of this and that,” he said. “But it is too early to judge the quality. It depends if there’s good music. We want good new music. I’d like to do it as a more collaborative thing than we used to do.”

Of course, the main stumbling block is brother Dave Davies who still seems to want nothing to do with the reunion…

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of the release of the first single from their forthcoming album.

‘Ulysses’ will be released on January 19th 2009 on Domino, a week before the release of their third album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

The single was produced by Dan Carey and the band as part of the album sessions which took place at the band’s own HQ in Govan, Glasgow and Carey’s South London studio.

Additionally the band have announced a remix competition with the website Beatport, www.beatport.com.

Remix parts of Ulysses will be made available to buy on Tuesday 4th November 2008 allowing people to put together their own unique version of the track well-ahead of the track being heard on any radio station.

These remixes will then be judged by Beatport and the Beatport community and the overall winner will then be picked by the band. The winning entries will then be released digitally to coincide with the single release in January.

Currently about to embark on a run of European dates, U.K. shows will be announced shortly.

Everything/Everything is the third studio album from London based composer and performer Leo Chadburn, under his nom de guerre Simon Bookish. Famously evasive in his influences and techniques, Chadburn’s output has skipped between dancefloor friendly electro-pop, ambient composition and abstract spoken-word infused electronica. 

Everything/Everything is a watershed; a long awaited reconciliation with the many facets of his musical character. The complex backing arrangements are played on saxophones, brass, piano, harp and Farfisa organ and scored so tightly that when played live, the musicians visibly break out in sweat. They swirl in rapid syncopated eddies, mimicking the busy bleeping of Chadburn’s previous work. This is electronic composition reinvented and reframed within a live context that relates to jazz as closely as contemporary classical and lounge crooning. Continue Reading

Click on the image to download the mixtape

On a day where our American cousins decide on the future of the World at large, or so it seems, we’re your light refreshment. This months Mixtape, cunningly entitled Remember Remember, sees us go a little more left-field than usual. These are some of the greatest new bands we’ve heard in the last month, with a smattering of established favourites (The Wave Pictures), hotly anticipated comebacks (Wilderness) and a new project from an old friend (School of Seven Bells).

So, wrap up warm, it’s cold out there - sit back with a mug of something hot, forget about the disaster of the outside World, and just listen to what we’ve put together.

Remember, Remember

1. Wilderness - Strand The Test Of Time [download mp3]
2. The Pack A.D. - Making Gestures [download mp3]
3. Frightened Rabbit - Old Old Fashioned (Live) [download mp3]
4. The Wave Pictures - Long Island [download mp3]
5. Sarah Siskind - Lovin’s For Fools [download mp3]
6. Women - Black Rice [download mp3]
7. School Of Seven Bells - Connjur [download mp3]
8. Over The Wall - A Grand Defeat [download mp3]
9. Jay Reatard - See/Saw [download mp3]
10. Slag Rabbit - The Summer Sun [download mp3]
11. Ace Bushy Striptease - Panda Love Unit [download mp3]
12. Popular Workshop - Villains Who Twirl Their Moustaches Are Easy To Spot [download mp3]

[DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS] - right-click and choose save-as to download complete .zip file

Slow Club’s Lets Fall Back In Love EP is out now, whilst Charles and Rebecca have recently toured with Tilly And The Wall, before heading out to do some Belgium dates in November followed by a recently announced headline Xmas show at Union Chapel on the 1st December. Let’s see how they copy with these… Continue Reading

Fanfarlo in Manhattan, photographed by John Best

TLOBF favourites Fanfarlo are currently in a Connecticut studio recording their first album, and we can’t wait to hear it. Whilst we dream of their sunny, multilayered melodies from a grey Britain, the band are keeping us up to date with exclusive weekly dispatches from the studio.

WEEK 1 [HERE]

WEEK 2

This week’s album working title: Halfway to a Hamburger Threeway.

By Tuesday morning, the winds of change had blown us into a monumental freak-out whipped up by loss of inspiration and confidence, and what seemed to be a complete lack of progress. Thankfully the genius that burst forth as the day wore on was a return to form and Wednesday can only be described as triumphant. This was just in time for the arrival of our manager, John Best, who had come to visit us for a few days to “inspect the metaphorical plumping-up of my latest cash cow” (John’s actual words, as overheard by Amos) and to bring us a folding bike for “fun” which we now see as the smoke screen it was. Continue Reading

NYC is Kieran Hebden’s (aka Four Tet) fourth collaboration with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid and while I won’t pretend that I have heard the other three, the word in the blogosphere is that this is the most equal of their partnerships, with Hebden given much more license to stamp his mark on the record. Certainly fans of Fridge and Four Tet would be foolish to overlook this, a beautiful and intensely atmospheric mini-album. Although I didn’t have the cover artwork to hand at the time of writing it is impossible to listen to NYC and not picture a seething, rain-lashed megatropolis. It’s a murky, cavernous record easily redolent of old Scorcese films: steam rising from man hole covers, pimps lurking in shadows, dealers dealin’ (to borrow from Bobby Gillespie). The percussive energy and gently building tensions and atmospherics make it less wilfully difficult than such jazz-electronica collaborations might lead you to expect. Continue Reading

Are you familiar with Monkey Swallows The Universe? An odd question, but largely because of the presence of the Sheffield-based band’s unusual name. When that group disbanded after releasing a pair of albums, one of their key members, Nat Johnson, began to embark upon a solo career. Dirty Rotten Soul, a four-song EP, is the first released output of that solo project.

The title track is an energetic country-tinged shuffle, built largely around the drums and twangly guitar, and with a memorable, lush chorus - “leave your wife, play some rock n’ roll, take me to the roller disco…” Continue Reading

By now we all should know the genius that is Tom Jenkinson, aka pusher of squares, and by now it has become almost a given that whatever he releases is going to be taking music in a new direction such is his unrivalled ability (have you seen that man play bass! It’s beyond comprehension), and his determination to make music that shifts the map. Along with Aphex Twin, Squarepusher is definitely one of the pioneering forces behind electronic music in the last 10-15 years.

‘Just a Souvenir’ is, as expected, a mish mash of styles that all seem to gel into a twisted cohesion. “This album started as a daydream about watching a crazy, beautiful rock band play an ultra-gig” explains Jenkinson on a quote from his official website. Noticeably he has gone more in an experimental rock direction, but rock as you’ve never heard it. Take Delta V, a lesson in how to riff out on bass, it is a very immediate and in your face. It seems as if Tom is having a jam session, on another planet. The album opens with ‘Star Time 2′; a song that sounds like I’ve landed on Planet Zelda and Sonics spinning the rings. Its as if ‘Red Hot Car’ has morphed into something altogether more funky.

Often Jenkinsons music has suffered from being cold and, at times, too mechanical, chopped and patched together with precision but sometimes lacking soul or trying too hard to be experimental or progressive. Just a Souvenir breaks that tradition with a far more colourful soundscape, leaning to something Daft Punk esque. There are more elements of electro and acid funk, along with his affection for Jazz breaks and a far more heavy rock sound. But as ever there really isn’t a way of describing what Squarepusher does. He defies explanation, logic, and expectation. He has definitely gone for a more melodic sound, even if melodic, in Squarepusher universe, is still some mutant hybrid of a thousand different styles. He’s doing for bass guitar what Hendrix did for guitar. Obviously there’s a massive time difference, but if we juxtapose the innovation of each artist there is a definite path between the two. The groove is definitely there.

Nothing sums up Squarepushers eccentricity more than ‘A Real Woman‘, a track that sounds almost comical; the strange vocal effects are something that Jenkinson has always loved to noodle with, and it makes for an odd listen. It has a child like playfulness to it. This is candy for extreme candy poppers. With every record the square man puts out he dives into new territory and comes out on top, owning and completely realizing new rhythms and vibrations.  Taking on from his last effort Hello Everything but more psychedelic than anything he’s done before I’m wondering how this would work with a head full of hallucinogens - I know I’d be listening to ‘Planet Gear’ over and over. As for ‘The Glass Road’: dark mystical genius. Not only is he a bass terrorist, but he’s a sweet jazz soliloquist. Just have a listen to his classical guitar on album closer ‘Yes - Sequitur’! Yeah we knew he could play guitar, but it’s always nice to mention his skills off the bass.

When I listen to this record first thing I think is where do his ideas come from? How did that rhythm come into being, where is this man from. Middle England or the centre of the universe! There isn’t anybody coming close to doing what Tom Jenkinson does, not only on the bass, but his whole pallet of musical textures, his direction and commitment to experimentation. Just a Souvenir proves that he is top of whatever game he chooses to be in, and he’s so far out of sight that you’ll be blinded.
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Squarepusher on Myspace