Left: James Graham - The Twilight Sad
Right: Scott Hutchinson - Frightened Rabbit

In this, the second part of our Twilight Sad/Frightened Rabbit feature, TLOBF moves on from the ‘C’ word filled spewings of Part 1 to chew the fat with Scott Hutchison and James Graham on why both bands were overlooked at T In the Park, where they think their standing is in the current Scottish Music scene and what the pair have planned for the future.

I noticed that at T In The Park you were both in small tents. What did you make of that?
James Graham: Yip, we were in the Unsigned Bands tent. I was quite happy to play it but I saw it as a kick in the nuts because we’re not unsigned and there were bands on that bill who weren’t where we are and hadn’t put in as much work as we have.
Scott Hutchison: You feel like you’ve produced good enough music that you could be treated as a real band and not be lumbered into one of those tents. There’s a lot of promoter politics to get a good slot at T In The Park.
JG: It worked out well but at the time it felt like ‘for fucks sake’. Continue Reading

Scott Hutchinson and James Graham share the stage

If you haven’t noticed, the Scottish music scene’s thriving. There’s a new sense of worth emanating from the nation’s sweat soaked venues and acts like We Were Promised Jetpacks, Broken Records and El Padre are creating sounds with the potential to shoot beyond the country’s towering trajectory and out over the Atlantic. And the reason for this tartan-clad revival? Well, there’re two: Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad.

Over the past twelve months the uniquely home-grown sonics of the ‘Twilight’s magnificent Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters and Frightened Rabbit’s equally elegiac The Midnight Organ Fight have pulled relentlessly on the UK public’s heartstrings. Forget the grating art school chic of Franz Ferdinand, these acts truly encapsulate the sound of modern Scotland: vehemently sarcastic, bitterly morose and absolutely, unflappably honest.

So in the first of a two part interview, The Line of Best Fit caught up with Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison and The Twilight Sad’s James Graham before a gig in Edinburgh during the Fringe to discuss their morbid disposition, the increased popularity of the Scottish brogue and, of course, Gwen Stefani… Continue Reading

“I hope you all enjoyed the 2 opening bands. They were great I thought, weren’t they?”.

It should be noted that James Graham says this opening statement with his tongue very much in his cheek. There were no support acts this evening and although the crowd were pretty patient, it feels somewhat odd to see the band take to the stage without a warm-up act or two.

Not to worry. It’ll be an evening of pure unadulterated Twilight Sad and I knew exactly what to expect. I think it’s safe to say that the Fat Cat released Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was without doubt, one of my (and The Line Of Best Fit’s) favourite records of 2007. When I caught them at Bush Hall (with Nina Nastasia and Welcome) and Hoxton Bar & Grill last year, they were amongst my pick of shows from the year. I found myself particularly enchanted by their menacing guitars that shimmer and grind created by Andy MacFarlane, where the epic sorrow cranks up to one monumental wall of noise after another, all pinned down by James Graham’s anguished howl, reminiscent of a more violent and passionate Aiden Moffat, but who can actually hold a tune. Continue Reading

Saturday night saw me take a trip into the heart of darkest Camden. Oh the horror, the horror. That Village Of The Damned where every spindly youth looks like they’re in the Klaxons. Making my own anti-fashion statement, I pulled on a stripey pullover from the Sainsbury’s Tu range and headed into town. There’s always a bit of inertia to overcome making the trip at weekends when you have a daily commute to the centre, but the lure of a Beirut show would have me rising like Lazarus from my deathbed. I’d been left spellbound after a Festival Hall coffee bar freebie in June between their gigs at Glastonbury and Koko – quite literally rubbing shoulders with the band as they meandered through the audience (and in the bogs afterward, but that’s another story). I was keen to see how a more formal show would shape up – though ‘formal’ is not the sort of word you’d ever use to label this bunch of multi-talented ragamuffins. It turned out I could be ideally qualified to act as a personal shopper for Beirut, and was I the only one to recognise Zach’s initial and fleeting skanky parka homage to Feargal Sharkey circa ’79? Only (mainly) violinist Kristin Ferebee would pose a problem. She looks like a bit of a Miss Selfridge girl – looking prim and proper amongst the rabble. But enough of the Trinny and Susannah. Let’s rewind and refocus. Continue Reading

Photographs by Rich Thane

November is just around the corner, the clocks have gone back and it’s suddenly, seemingly, dark all day. What better way to banish those Autumnal blues than see the long standing Idlewild tour their greatest hits around the provinces. Tonight, they visit our fair town of Cambridge.

The PA is continually looping the latest Rilo Kiley album and it only serves to annoy as we wait for The Resistance to take to the stage. A bit of a coup for them, they’re one of the finest local acts around and this is a great opportunity for them to stretch beyond their local fan base. I’m not sure the crowd were that impressed though. They seemed bemused by their gaze-rock. The sound didn’t do them much favours however, the PA seemingly unable to cope with the dark, dense sounds that they were crafting. Fellow TLOBFer, Rich Thane said that they made him physically sick. But hey, better a reaction of something than none at all - they’re still one of my favourite Cambridge bands.

The Twilight Sad

So next up were the real reason why the TLOBF troupe were here tonight; The Twilight Sad. We’ve championed them all year, their debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is a wonderfully dense and esoteric slice of music that conjures up images from the darker corners of the imagination. Tonight, that music is realised, fully, live and in front of this partisan crowd. Beginning with the evocative “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”, singer James Graham stands in the centre of the stage, in self imposed isolation from the rest of the band. His solitary piercing vocals silence the members of the audience who were talking. When the rest of the band crash in, a wave of music envelopes the crowd and sends shivers down my spine.

The rest of their five song set passes far too quickly. Graham’s twisting, twitching and haunting stage presence captivates as he spews forth his powerful lyrics. His eyes roll back to the point that you think he’s completely lost in the music. Their wall of sound approach amazingly realised with just the four of them and a host of delay peddles. The album is full of dense sounds that build up to create a massive wall of noise. Live, the songs are almost stripped back and given air to breath. “That Summer At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy” rolls around, twitching like an animal in its final death throws. Graham’s vocals at turns beautiful, quiet and then harsh and piercing. He may be “shit at between song chat” but you don’t have to talk when the music is as good as this. As their final song descends into a mountain of feedback and noise, it feels like rolls after rolls of thunder are rippling through the venue and the crowd are left breathless.

Idlewild

After that, Idlewild were going to have to do something very special. Unfortunately, they bottled it. I’ve been a fan of Idlewild from their debut album, and was looking forward to catching them touring some of their “greatest hits” but, tonight, there was something missing. They seem to have distilled all their old angst-driven songs to the lowest common denominator so they now all sound like indie-rock thrashes. There’s little to distinguish between all their numbers. Woomble’s lyrics are lost in a swathe of riff’s and balls-to-the-wall rock. The delicate introspection that made them seems to have been discarded live.

Song’s like “Little Discourage”, “No Emotion” and “Actually It’s Darkness” feel limp and, dare I say it; boring. Woomble looked like he’d rather be anywhere than here, playing these songs. The rest of the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, pulling some Richman-esque moves with their guitars, but it fails to move me. It’s only towards the end of their set do they slightly rescue the evening. “Make Another World”, “A Modern Way of Letting Go” and “I Understand It” break the mould, their indie-rock by-numbers approach broken apart and the inner beauty of their songs shines through. It’s just a shame it was too little too late to help raise the opinion of one of my favourite bands that, sadly, have fallen in my estimation.

Links
The Resistance [myspace]
The Twilight Sad [myspace] [interview] [photos]
Idlewild [myspace] [photos]