Posted on 09 October 2008 by Rich Thane
Posted on 10 September 2008 by John Brainlove
The Luminaire in Kilburn was voted Timeout’s venue of the year last year for a reason. It’s a beautiful space for live music, draped in maroon cloth and flickering with flecks of mirrorballed light. At this venue, all eyes focus on the stage (or the considerately placed screens should the view be blocked), and there’s a refreshingly reverential respect for performance.
It’s the perfect location for The Acorn, who start off strong and never let up. They begin with an electrifying version of “The Flood pt 2″ before tumbling into the anthemic, joyous “Crooked Legs”. The group approach to syncopated rhythmic playing is powerful and well-executed, filling every space with clicks, strummed notes, picked strings, handclaps, snare touches and cymbal smashes to form a delicate matrix of sounds that carries each song forward. There’s a refreshing restraint and subtlety at play that shies away from an over zealous festival drum-circle pummeling. Continue Reading
Posted on 08 September 2008 by Ro Cemm
Having played an impromptu set on a blustery Brighton beach early that day, a tired looking Acorn took to the UK stage for the first time. In good humour throughout, this felt more like an evening in the company of friends than a blog hyped ‘hot new thing’. Sharing jokes with the band and the audience alike the band tore through a 45 minute set, as they begin their mission to ‘inseminate’ the UK with their music digitally (thanks for that image Howie). Continue Reading
Posted on 19 August 2008 by Ro Cemm
For those of you who haven’t noticed already, TLOBF is really quite keen on Canada’s The Acorn. When we first posted about them back in February, they had no record deal in the UK, and not that many people outside of Canada had heard of them. Yet, it was clear at that point that there was something special here. After all, it’s not every band who get Simon Raymonde of Bella Union declaring their record ‘one of my fave fave fave records…ever’ on a comments page. And this was months before Bella Union finally signed the band for the release of Glory Hope Mountain. Since then we have covered their every move- done a fantastic 20 Questions, and in turn they have been long listed for Canada’s Polaris Prize, played a successful US tour, played the End of the Road SXSW showcase, put on a workshop with Calexico and The Apostle of Hustle at the Winnepeg folk festival and prepared for their immanent UK invasion. So what is it that has got us, and many others, so hot and bothered about the band? Continue Reading
Posted on 12 August 2008 by Rich Thane
We’ve talked and talked and talked about how much we love The Acorn here at TLOBF so we won’t bore you even more. Just hang fire for some M-A-J-O-R gushing when the album review goes live next week. No - this is just a quick post. The fine folk over at Have You Heard have just posted up a fantastic and rather chaotic live session in which the band play five tracks from Glory Hope Mountain.
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Crooked Legs’
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Flood pt. 1′
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Low Gravity’
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Flood pt. 2′
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Plateau Ramble’
Click here to head on over to Have You Heard if you want to download the session in a .zip file.
Posted on 21 July 2008 by Rich Thane
You might think two consecutive posts about The Acorn may seem a little excessive. Well… it’s tough - they rule. And besides, this one is for a good cause..
It has been brought to our attention that The Acorn have been nominted for ‘Best Canadian Act’ and ‘Best Canadian Album’ over at The Verge internet radio station. The combined prize for said awards is a healthy $50,000. Nice. Help them pick up the prize by clicking here to cast your VOTE! They are up against some steep competition… Pretty much every other Canadian indie band to be fair, but they could still win it with your help… Go on! VOTE!
So, what is Verge? Well, it’s a internet radio station which highlights new and emerging talent from Canada - so essentially its a bloody great listen. For Example - an upcoming show is a track by track with Brendan Canning where he talks his way through the new BSS presents… record. The Verge awards are basically to highlight the best band and best album of the year from Canada.
Posted on 21 July 2008 by Rich Thane
News we’ve been waiting for at TLOBF towers for some time.. The wonderful Canadian quintet The Acorn will be heading over to the UK in September for a string of club dates, culminating with an appearence at The End Of The Road festival. As previously reported, the band will be releasing the incredible Glory Hope Mountain via our friends at Bella Union. The record will come out on 11th August (digitally) and will get its physical release on 20th October. Glory Hope Mountain was originally released across the atlantic last year through Paper Bag records so it’s about time an English label picked up on this amazing band.
Read more about them here, and see what they made of our 20Q’s here.
Also, if you want a taster of what they sound like, be sure to download this months mixtape which features ‘Crooked Legs’ a definite highlight from the album. Download the 12 track compilation for nowt, here.
Those dates then:
September
Fri 5th – Bullington Arms, Oxford
Sat 6th – Yardbird, Birmingham
Sun 7th – The Hope, Brighton
Mon 8th – The Luminaire, London w/ Akron Family
Tue 9th – Bodega Social, Nottingham w/ Akron Family
Wed 10th – Night & Day, Manchester
Thu 11th – Fleece, Bristol w/ Akron Family
Fri 12th – End of the Road Festival, Salisbury
Posted on 18 June 2008 by Rich Hughes
We’re very excited about this at TLOBF Towers. The ink has barely dried on the contracts but we can reveal that The Acorn, our very own loved and 20 question band, have signed with our favourite record label, Bella Union.
No finalised date yet on when the marvellous album, Glory Hope Mountain, will be released, but the band will play a set of dates between Sept 5th - 14th plus will be at the rather great End of the Road Festival.
Just to get you in the mood, they’ve also released a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Good Enough’ which is, quite frankly, so superior to the original you shouldn’t have to ask… Download below!
mp3:> The Acorn: ‘Good Enough’
Posted on 08 May 2008 by Rich Hughes
The Acorn have been continually playing on our stereos at TLOBF Towers ever since a Canadian friend of ours lent us some mp3’s towards the end of last year. We’ve been completely bowled over by them in fact. Here’s hoping for them to get a UK deal in 2008. In the meantime, we managed to track down main man Rolf Klausener to pitch our notoriously devilsh 20 Questions to him… Continue Reading
Posted on 11 February 2008 by Rich Hughes
So, if I say that The Acorn are a Canadian band, you’re instantly going to think of The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and the rest of that bombastic crowd. However, on this occassion, you’d be wrong. There’s nothing bombastic about The Acorn. It’s smooth, gentle and perfectly beautiful. Their songs bathe in soft guitars, exquisite vocal harmonies and prefect rhythms. What we have here is a development on country and folk rock seen through a kaleidoscope of beauty and wonder. Their Myspace page has their sound pegged as “the splishsplashsplosh of aminotic fluids sluicing through a rusty sewer grate onto the scalp of a smiling Andy Swan”. Now, I’m not entirely sure I get the Andy Swan bit, but it gives you the general idea.
Their warm sounds bring to mind Jeff Buckley, Wilco and Neil Young and yet there’s something moving about the laid back vocals that echo Ffye Dangerfield’s of the Guillemots. In fact, it’s a more rural version of the latter that The Acorn reminds me most of.
The songs are full of open and honest emotions. The lyrics are simple, beautiful and inspiring. The song ‘Crooked Legs’ recounts the age old decisions of moving away from your home town to the bright lights of the urban throng: “I’m watching the road with two young eyes to guide me“, “the fireflies fade as the city lights find me“. Whilst ‘Glory’ speaks of those small, tender moments shared with a loved one that are missed when they’re gone “Oh, the morning sun has come and you’re not there” delivered in a voice that’s full of emotional longing.
There’s no hiding from the rawness on offer here, yet it’s wrapped in such a warm and welcoming blanket that it reassures you. This combination of words and music seems to be saying “sure, life can be a terrible thing to endure, but don’t worry, everything will work out fine in the end”. And, in this day and age, that’s all one can hope for.
mp3:> The Acorn: The Flood (Pt1)
