The final CFTPA tour was always going to be an event laced with sadness, though for many different reasons. A band splitting up to pursue different directions is one thing, but a man who is tired of playing songs he wrote over ten years ago is another entirely.
Tomlab
Mantler – Monody
Chris A. Cummings, aka Mantler, releases a sleepy fourth album which hides its light under a bushel.
Gigi – Maintenant
Flawed and flimsy in comparison with the bygone ‘greats’, but this is too much fun to put down, in both senses of that phrase. Andrew Dowdall reviews.
Niobe – Blackbird’s Echo
Talented producer, skilled vocalist or exceptional songcrafter, which description fits raven haired singer Niobe? Answer: All of them. Sean Bamberger reviews.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children
The fifth album from lo-fi Californian Casiotone for the Painfully Alone may be divisive among non-fans.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Advance Base Battery Life
Offering little to seasoned CFTPA fans and even less to those of unaccustomed lugs, Advance Base Battery Life feels like a record label stroll down memory lane…
Skeletons Rise Again
Titularly schizophrenic NYC oddcore collective Skeletons aka Skeletons And The Kings Of All Cities aka Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys are back in the UK this March for a tour to “support” / EXPRESS their new album, “Money”.
Xmas Advent [December 2nd] :: Simon Bookish
What’s behind today’s door??? Oooh look. It’s Tomlab recording artist Simon Bookish with a track from Final Fantasy’s 2008 EP ‘Spectrum 14th Century’.
TLOBF Interview :: Parenthetical Girls
John Brainlove recently caught up with Zac Pennington on the last night of Parenthetical Girls’ UK tour to talk about pop stardom, childhood memory loss, Anglophilia, and the female condition.
Parenthetical Girls – The Dome, London 17/11/08 [Photos]
Portland, Oregon’s finest – Parenthetical Girls brought their theatrical saccharine pop over to the UK for the first time to play London’s Dome Hall. Ama Chana was down the front, camera in hand to catch the action on film.
Simon Bookish – Everything/Everything
One of the finest albums of the year, and another step in Simon Bookish realizing his potential as one of the most consistently creative, challenging and interesting contemporary UK solo artists working today.
Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
It seems, in perfecting this perfect, *perfect* sound, Zac Pennington and co forgot to write a record’s worth of good songs. Oops. Tom Whyman is left feeling a tad dissapointed with the follow up to 2007′s ‘Safe As Houses’.
