Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Gig Review: Stereolab @ Club Academy, Manchester, 17th December 2008

It has been an age since I last blogged and I apologise, but since returning from a two week holiday in the States in early November I became, overnight, what I can only describe as a Grumpy Old Man. All enthusiasm for just about anything had waned, and this included music and especially blogging about music. At a time when I should have been taking stock of 2008 and preparing year end lists of albums and gigs I was instead listening to little that didn’t involve Will Oldham or Tom Waits and not remotely looking forward to any of the gigs we had planned between then and Christmas. Things were so bad that I was quite relieved when the record company’s tickets for TV On The Radio didn’t come through on time and I got to spend the evening taking out my frustrations on the football pitch.

Stereolab @ Manchester Club AcademyWith the clouds lifting I was quite looking forward to seeing Stereolab at the Club Academy last Wednesday, but nowhere near as much as I should have been. I had been a few years since they were last in Manchester yet they are second behind The Wedding Present in the list of bands that I have seen the most: this was probably around the 20th time. Still, somewhere along the line I had forgotten exactly how wonderful Stereolab are live and it didn’t take long to be reminded as they began proceedings with the perky rhythms of “Percolator”. With Laetitia Sadier on fine form, having lost none of her considerable charm and Gallic cool in the intervening years, the band played plenty of familiar tunes from days of yore as well as a few choice cuts from the new Chemical Chords record, an album that I have yet to fully get to grips with, it being packed rather too tightly with dense four-minute pop tunes for my liking. Live, and given room to breathe, the Chemical Chords songs really come to life and the likes of “Neon Beanbag” and “Summer Sands” sounded like ‘Lab classics in waiting with Sadier emphasising the point asking us not to be disappointed that they were playing new songs because “in a few years, they will be old songs”.

Of course they played their best known pop gems “French Disko” and “Ping Pong” and they sounded as good as ever while “Cybelle’s Reverie”, played in the encore, was nothing short of incredible. The band are at their best when they lock into a solid hypnotic groove, which they do often, playing with a rare intensity, shooting glances to each other to signal small but perceptible changes in the formula and creating an irresistible sound that you’ll find impossible not to move at least one part of your body to. The lengthy coda to the otherwise serene “Lo Boob Oscillator” was particularly invigorating as was the classic “Stomach Worm” from their debut LP, Peng!, from way back in 1992. “John Cage Bubblegum”‘s combination of a repetitive, insidious groove with a great pop melody was the night’s finest moment as far as I’m concerned and the vociferous adulation of the packed crowd at the end suggested I wasn’t the only one.

With the band sounding tighter than ever this was easily the best I’ve seen from Stereolab since the tragic death of band member Mary Hansen in 2002. They seem to have rediscovered the elements that made them such a compelling live act in the 90s and it was only on the closing “Metronomic Underground” that Mary’s absence was really felt. For me, it was great to rediscover one of my favourite bands and, thanks to Stereolab, the rediscovery of my blogging mojo might not be too far behind.

Stereolab – Self Portrait with “Electric Brain”

Stereolab – Cybelle’s Reverie

Stereolab – Stomach Worm

Posted by The Ledge on 21st December 2008 at 12:17 am | comments (3)
File under Gig Reviews,manchester club academy,manchester gigs,mp3,Reviews,stereolab.

The Indie Cred November Gig Run-Down

Right, I know we’ve gone quiet here over the last month. You’ll have to excuse us a bit. Our relatives over the pond have had some rather distressing things going on so we’ve been away for a bit and focused on other stuff since we returned. We have, however, been to a few really great gigs recently which have proved far more than a welcome distraction from things.

We enjoyed Fleet Foxes at the Academy 2 on November 9th, although we were rather jetlagged so we stood right at the back and heard more than we saw. The harmonies sounded fabulous as always. We were back down at Club Academy on the 18th to see Low play their Christmas gig. The first half of the set was mesmerising and the second half – all Christmas carols – was surprisingly good. They were accompanied by the opening band (who were pretty good too) and it was quite a celebration – especially for a Low gig.

For a complete change of pace we went to see Fucked Up at the Roadhouse and their ear-splitting hardcore and jovial attitude was intense and highly enjoyable. They’re so much more than just a noisy hardore band. Their opening act was great as well, although I didn’t catch their name – they sounded like all the best bits of Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr., Husker Du and the Pixies.

Tuesday the 24th of November was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds night down at the Apollo. Nick Cave is many things but boring is never one of them. The band were on fine form and delivered an angry, noisy set with, well, many of my favourites. I enjoy “God is in the House” more every time I see it live and “Red Right Hand” and “Stagger Lee” were spectacular as well. “I Call Upon the Author” was a welcome new addition, even if he did truncate it a bit. Opener Joe Gideon and the Shark were quite a revelation. Forget the fact that they had some great Fall-inspired tunes, the Shark was great to watch on stage.

We followed up Nick Cave with Frightened Rabbit at Moho Live. The less said about this one the better. I was exhausted and falling asleep on my feet as they didn’t go on stage til midnight and the sound was awful. Pity because they’re a great band and I’m pretty sure that The Midnight Organ Fight will be in The Ledge’s top 10 albums of 2008, I haven’t worked mine out yet – it could make that list too.

Sunday, November 30th saw us down at the Manchester Evening News Arena for Leonard Cohen. While it wasn’t as good a gig as the one we saw at The Opera House over the summer, it was still fabulous and he’s finally stopped introducing the band every 3 minutes. “Famous Blue Raincoat,” “So Long Marianne” and “Tower of Song” were divine and listening to him perform “Hallelujah” with so much heart makes me wonder how Simon Cowell dare defile it by forcing his new pop muppet to cover it in time for Christmas.

On 4th December we were back at the Roadhouse for A Place to Bury Strangers, Ten Kens and Lowline. We were only really familiar with Ten Kens. Lowline were worse than expected sounding at times like Oasis covering Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and at other times like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club covering Oasis. Mostly they were non-descript and extremely boring. Ten Kens have put out a great album recently and I was really looking forward to them so I was bitterly disappointed to find that the muddy, murky sound in the Roadhouse really ruined any chance we had of enjoying their performance. They were trying hard in front of a crowd that were disinterested (except for one guy punching the air in the front row – you know who you are and you know we know who you are, even if you didn’t notice us on the night and we were being anti-social). They have what can only be described as a very full sound, there’s few gaps, and the distortion caused by the volume being too high and the mix being all wrong meant it just sounded a mess and it was hard to tell which song was which. We were exhausted and grumpy and left, not bothering to watch A Place to Bury Strangers.

Saturday 6th December was the welcome return of The Wedding Present who always deliver a good show. I quite like their newest album, although The Ledge is underwhelmed by it, but we both had fun jumping about to some classics and to some new tracks. Plus they finally did a Cinerama song off their first album – which is my favourite Cinerama album. The opening band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were charming enough that we bought their album. On the night they sounded like the perfect accompaniment to The Wedding Present’s jangly guitars. On record they’re more like Belle & Sebastian gone C86. Either way is not a bad way to be.

This week, on 10th December we’ve been over to the Academy 1 to see The Hold Steady, who were on fine form yet again with a brilliant set – far better than the gig they did at the Academy 2 earlier in the year, in fact. Pity the ever-growing crowd is also growing ever less agreeable – 2 days later and I still have bruised ribs from the couple who trampled and physically removed a 7 stone girl from beside me and tried to do the same to me. However, the band were faultless and new tracks such as “One for the Cutters” and “Magazines” slot in well next to old classics like “Positive Jam” and “Charlemagne in Sweatpants.”

Then last night , 11th December, I drove over the Pennines to see James at the Leeds Academy (formerly the Town & Country) deliver a rather unusual but highly enjoyable set. It was great to hear “Stutter” dragged out from the depths of the back catalogue and I’m still surprised by how much I love their new material.

So, that’s us mostly caught up. We will be producing some top 10 lists before the end of the month and hopefully back to business as usual sometime in January. The Ledge might even force himself to review the Stereolab gig he’s going to see next week. Maybe.

Gig Review: Tindersticks @ Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 4th October 2008

Tindersticks‘ gig at the Bridgewater Hall last Saturday night was something of a renaissance for the band after years of what seemed like a steady decline in their popularity and the quality and quantity of their output. I can barely remember the last time I saw them at the Academy 2 in 2001 and if JustHipper hadn’t reminded me about that gig I would have been telling you that the last time I saw them was Glastonbury 1999.

Hopefully my memory will play similar tricks if I ever attempt to recall seeing support act Sara Lowes at any point in the future. I was initially impressed that a young, relatively unknown singer-songwriter would turn up with a seven-strong backing band in place but soon grew weary of her unremarkable and completely forgettable made-for-Radio 2 fare. We headed back to the bar after four songs and stood next to the great Guy Garvey as we ordered our drinks. He is a big bloke, in real life.

I won’t be forgetting the Tindersticks’ performance in a hurry. The Bridgewater Hall is a perfect venue for their brooding, melancholy, orchestral pop and the fact that they had a mini-orchestra playing with them was a major plus point. Their new album, The Hungry Saw, is a return to the sort of form they were in in their late nineties heyday and on the night they played the whole album (with the unexplained exception of “Mother Dear”), in order but in two parts with a bunch of oldies in between. They did a similar thing at Glastonbury in 1999 when they played the yet-to-be-released Simple Pleasures in its entirety. The first seven album tracks were played to perfection and it was the three instrumentals that really stood out from the rest. Where they tend to pass by with little more than a passing wave when listening to the album, live, and with the benefit of being able to see the orchestra play their component parts, they unravelled to reveal intricate, beautiful melodies that had previously gone unnoticed.

After the thoroughly entertaining “The Organist Entertains”, the soulful “Dying Slowly”, from 2001’s Can Our Love… ushered in a collection of older songs as well as a Townes Van Zandt cover (sadly not “Kathleen”). There were three songs in a row from their classic eponymous second album including “Travelling Light” which, despite being my favourite Tinders track, was the biggest disappointment of the night. It’s a song that really only works as a duet and with Stuart Staples singing it alone and changing the words so that each line was from his own standpoint it fell a little flat, despite the best efforts of the string section. “Sleepy Song” followed and instantly made up for it with the orchestra again excelling with its swells of strings and brass.

“The Hungry Saw” saw most of the orchestra turning their hands to percussion while “Boobar Come Back To Me”, the highlight of the new album, built from its quiet beginnings to a resounding crescendo. Stuart Staples, with hair cropped and sculpted sideburns, has aged very well and his voice hasn’t changed at all – for me it was always more rich, tender baritone than Vic Reeves club singer. He was on fine form all night, never more so than on “All The Love”, the slow burning, mournful lament that was the high point of the evening as far as I’m concerned.

The encore began with their cover of “If You’re Looking For A Way Out”, a song that at first seemed an unlikely choice of cover but that fitted right in with the downbeat soul of Simple Pleasures and that they have now made their own. The lively Spanish guitar flourishes and Mariachi horns of “Her” brought Calexico to mind and the sparse “The Not Knowing” brought matters to a sombre close. This was a tremendous return for one of my favourite bands of the nineties and Alzheimer’s will have set in by the time I forget this one.

Tindersticks – All The Love

Tindersticks – Travelling Light

Tindersticks – The Not Knowing

Posted by The Ledge on 11th October 2008 at 7:19 pm | comments (7)
File under bridgewater hall,Gig Reviews,mp3,Reviews,tindersticks.

Gig Review: Foals @ Manchester Academy, 8th October 2008

When we first saw Foals, just over a year ago, they amazed us with the sheer force of their delivery. The set was energetic and chaotic while still delivering loads of great hooks and dance beats. We expected great things from  the album and were disappointed at how clean and polished it sounded – none of the urgency or energy came across in the first couple of listens. So, I filed it away as a minor disappointment and didn’t think much of it until The Ledge told me he had secured a pair of tickets to see Foals play Manchester Academy 1.

I thought I should get the album back out and listen to it again a bit more closely. Clearly my original opinion had been coloured by the live experience which was intense and unexpected. While the second half of the album does lose focus and meander a bit and while I still think the production could have done with giving it a rougher edge, the first half of the album is actually very good. So by the time we headed down to the gig I was looking forward to it, in a fifth-gig-in-five-nights-dead-on-my-feet sort of way.

Thankfully we discovered we had access to the balcony which turned out to be a mixed blessing. It afforded us a great view of the gig without the usual crowd hassles and it kept us from having to wade into a giant mosh pit – which looked like good fun, but we were far too exhausted from the previous four days of activity. The problem is, our vantage point also meant we captured none of the atmosphere of the crowd, and there seemed to be loads of it as the moshers during opener Holy Fuck certainly seemed to be going for it.

Holy Fuck were quite intriguing for about 15 minutes as I couldn’t tell whether they wanted to be a rock-oriented dance band or whether they were trying to produce catchy math rock similar to Battles. Ultimately, over a 45 minute set they were a little boring. I think you’d probably have to be dancing to really listen to them for very long. I suppose they played that long because Dananananaykroyd, also meant to be on the bill, had cancelled at the last minute.

Foals received a riotous reception from the crowd on the floor, and while I can’t fault the quality of their performance, I can’t help but feel that they have yet to fully make the transition from a band playing tiny toilet venues to a band capable of filling a large hall full of 2,000 screaming teenagers. My two favourite tracks off the album, “The French Open” and “Cassius” sounded fabulous, and I was certainly humming along to the likes of “Olympic Airways” and “Electric Bloom” but on the whole the performance seemed far more withdrawn and less chaotic than previously and the band seemed not to know what to do with the crowd.

Many of the album tracks didn’t venture far from their polished album versions and much of what really impressed me about the previous gig just wasn’t there or simply didn’t translate well in the larger venue. To be fair, they had opened up a bit by the end and some stage diving occurred, but the intensity and anarchic atmosphere from the Night & Day had been replaced by what seemed to be a band not entirely sure of themselves.

Foals performance shouldn’t have surprised me. I spent much of the gig thinking that actually it felt a bit like watching the awkward performance delivered by Bloc Party the first time they played Manchester Academy 1 back in April 2005 only a few short months after playing a blinder at the Night & Day on Halloween night 2004 (and only a few short months before The Indie Credential came into being). I believe I expressed similar sentiments about Editors at Manchester Academy also back in 2005.

I suppose it is simply the nature of the music industry in 2008 that young bands are finding themselves becoming popular very quickly without time to really find their feet. I would also guess that they will learn to adjust their live shows over time and learn to fill venues the size of the Academy and bigger so perhaps next time we can stand in the balcony and get properly knocked off our feet.

Foals – The French Open

Foals – Electric Bloom

Posted by JustHipper on 9th October 2008 at 5:38 pm | comments (4)
File under foals,Gig Reviews,manchester academy 1,manchester gigs,mp3.

Gig Review: In the City, Manchester, Tuesday 7th October 2008

We were looking forward to an In the City hat-trick and yet again were befuddled by the range of choice so we had always planned on making Tuesday the day where we saw a few acts with whom we’re pretty familiar.

In The City 2008 - Unidentified band @ The AtticWe started off at The Attic where a last minute opener had replaced a cancellation by one of the scheduled acts. I have no idea what these guys were called as they never said, but honestly, if I played in a band that derivative I wouldn’t tell anyone what we were called either. They had long hair, beards, wore baggy shorts and sounded like they liked everything bland and monotonous about Seattle c. 1995. The most memorable thing about them was the rather unpleasant ending to their set where the lead singer braced his guitar against a monitor and simulated sex with it. I’m still trying to erase the image from my brain as it was really rather vile. I guess he thought it made him more “rock n roll.” Mostly it made him look like a bit of a tit.

Second on was The Star Fighter Pilot, a one-man electronic act whose lo-fi, keyboard and computer-driven set falls somewhere in between early OMD and what Nine Inch Nails would sound like if they tried to make lighthearted electro-pop. The live set involves live singing combined programmed elements from a laptop and sound effects and a bit of keyboard. Lyrically the tracks cover somewhat unusual themes (although the prevalence of numbers about stalkers and perverts last night was a bit worrying) and full of humour. The highlight, naturally, was the live debut of “The Invisible Invasion,” which we’re pretty sure made internet history as the first song commissioned via Twitter when I made a cheeky tweet about it back in early September. Needless to say, we very much enjoyed the set.

With proceedings at The Attic running late we knew we’d already missed The Bangs and didn’t want the same thing to occur with Light Syndicate so we rushed across to Retro Bar where the band were just taking the stage as we paid for drinks at the bar. We first saw Light Syndicate back when they were still called Nephew at an In the City showcase way back in 2005. At the time I commented that they reminded me of Toad the Wet Sprocket because there was a folky element to the sound. These days with the band down to 4 musicians they are tighter than ever and louder than ever. Light Syndicate in 2008 have really hit their stride with a sound influenced by late-era Radiohead and post rock but with enough rousing melody and sympathetic lyricism to make the songs sound vast and anthemic while managing to maintain the intimacy of delivering them in a tiny room – plus they still do the whole quiet/loud thing to great effect. They told the crowd last night that their debut album, which they must have completed a year ago, will finally be out next month. It’s great and well worth buying.

By the time Light Syndicate finished we were exhausted from four days in a row of gigs and decided to head home, very impressed with the broad range of new musical talent on offer at ITC in 2008. Hopefully we’ll hear more from (most of) these bands over the coming year.

Posted by JustHipper on 8th October 2008 at 6:44 pm | comments (5)
File under Gig Reviews,in the city,manchester gigs,youtube.

Gig Review: In The City, Manchester, Monday 6th October 2008

In The City 2008 - To The Bones @ Cellar VieThis year’s In The City is turning out to be really great. In previous years we haven’t been to nearly as much as we should have but this year we’re making the effort to get out every night. The event would be even better were it not for all the belaminated record industry delegates clogging up the venues. I’m not sure what they’ve been delegated to do but talking loudly while the bands are on while us mere mortals strive to hear over the top of them is my best bet. Then there’s the photographers who think that they have the right to get in everyone’s way for an entire gig because they have a big fuck-off camera. This happened on Sunday night at Cellar Vie during To The Bones where at one point there were four or five such planks making it impossible for anyone else to get a decent view. A couple of them were at it for the entire gig, which is just ridiculous; I mean, how many photos do you need to take? If the pics on Drowned In Sound today are the best from the 300 or so you took then you’re clearly in the wrong job.

In The City 2008 - Magic Arm @ Piccadilly RecordsTonight we began at Piccadilly Records where we missed the start of Colorama’s set but enjoyed what we did see; their cool, laid back mix of country rock, folk and blues making for almost as chilled-out a start as we had at the Bay Horse the day before. We were there to see Magic Arm, who I’ve seen in a supporting capacity at least three times in the last year, but never headlining, and never with a full band. He started off solo but with his superb manipulation of his looping pedal it sounded anything but. After his excellent rendition of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Ballad of Melody Nelson” and a few harmonica problems that brought songs to a grinding halt, the band – made up of members of My Side Of The Mountain – joined in and things got less intricate and more rugged, but no less enjoyable, even though Justhipper had to put up with a cameraman standing right in front of her for most of the latter part of the gig while chatting away and texting his friends. They closed with a terrific version of “Widths And Heights”, leaving the song’s undeniably catchy chorus rattling around my brain for the remainder of the evening.

In The City 2008 - The ABC Club @ Chicago Rock CafeThen it was off across town to the Chicago Rock Café on Peter Street where we managed to catch Radio Luxembourg’s final song – a rather excellent slice of anthemic Welsh pop – and were then enthralled by the old school indie of The ABC Club with their wonderful jangling guitars and the breathtakingly morose Morrissey-esque vocals of Zandra Klievens, who stood stock still and expressionless throughout, which is exactly how it should be. At least the jabbering delegates behind us picked up on the brilliance of Klievens’ voice and I hope that they don’t stay unsigned for too long because I can’t wait ’til they release an album. They were followed by the disappointing Dash Delete who, despite their earnest endeavour, brought nothing new to the indie landscape with their sub-Bloc Party bluster. We left after a few songs: another early night for us, but another enjoyable one, nonetheless.

Posted by The Ledge on 7th October 2008 at 11:53 pm | comments (5)
File under Gig Reviews,in the city,Reviews.

Gig Review: In the City, Manchester, Sunday, 5th October 2008

Per usual, we were stumped about where to begin with In the City this year. The Ledge initially wanted to check out The Magic Arm at the Night & Day, but I had it on good authority that at his Monday gig at Piccadilly Records he’s got My Side of the Mountain as his backing band. Apart from being some of the nicest guys in Manchester, they’re also shit-hot musicians, and apparently they were brilliant with him at Glastonbury, so we opted instead for Simon Connor at The Bay Horse, figuring we’ll watch The Magic Arm tomorrow instead.

We made a good choice as Simon was lovely. His melancholic singer-songwriter fare is a notch above the norm. Lyrically he writes very vivid vignettes, although he would benefit from having a backing band with him on stage. It’s a shame he was on so early, at 4pm, as he deserved a bigger audience as he sounded lovely. Having become familiar with some of his songs, particularly the tracks off the Seaside Surprise EP, I was really captivated by his performance.

Simon was followed swiftly by a folk duo called Butler-Williams who were funny and self-deprecating and positively lovely. They used guitars, odd percussion and a theramin to great effect in their musical tales of everyday. Apparently their EP has been record of the week at Piccadilly Records recently and we could definitely see why.

The last act we watched at the Bay Horse was called Kev Fox and he sounded like his main influence is Doves first album. He has an absolutely massive voice which at times was so powerful that it was breathtaking and startling and we really enjoyed his very short set of moody musical landscapes.

From the Bay Horse we moved onto Cellar Vie, which I thought was a gentleman’s club, as I pass it twice a day. We caught the end of The Fire and I who I thought sounded like rather boring, bogstandard rock and The Ledge thought had potential. The band on after them, however, Isosceles, came on stage with a bang and were enjoyable protoges of the angular art pop of Young Knives and Franz Ferdinand. There was an amusing moment at the end where the young scenesters played a song called “Kitsch Bitch” which was mocking, erm, scenesters. Well done.

Unexpectedly, Silverclub really blew us away almost immediately, coming on stage looking decidedly unassuming and producing, with just a singer/guitarist and a bassist, quite a big sound which was heavily influenced by The Happy Mondays and New Order – but in the best way possible. We’d never heard of them before but I don’t know how. We’ll certainly be looking out for them in future.

Finally, we stuck around just long enough to watch To The Bones, who turned out to be a raucous, hairy rock band who screamed a lot, jumped around the stage and then jumped around the crowd. The singer poured beer in his own hair before rolling around on the ground a bit. They were highly enjoyable and very skilled at what they do.

So, day 1 of In the City has been a success and we’re looking forward to another couple of days of new bands!

Posted by JustHipper on 5th October 2008 at 10:56 pm | comments (4)
File under Gig Reviews,manchester gigs.

CD Review: Vanilla Swingers – Vanilla Swingers

It’s very rare that you come across a debut album that’s as confident and well-rounded as that of Vanilla Swingers, a duo comprising Anne Gilpin and Miles Jackson whose eponymous effort is a concept album, no less. But don’t let that put you off because it’s a damn fine concept album, one where the songs all serve to advance the plot but also stand up in their own right when taken out of the context of the story they seek to tell.

The story is of two lovers who escape their dead end town for the bright lights of London, travel back in time to 1985, split up and meet again 30 years later in 2015. Musically the album swings from acoustic ballads to chilled electro-pop with great ease and, coupled with the excellent and detailed lyrics, the general vibe is that of the low rent metropolitan romanticism that the likes of Jack, Pulp and Band of Holy Joy have pedalled to great effect in the past. Another obvious reference point is Black Box Recorder. Gilpin’s voice is a dead ringer for BBR’s Sarah Nixey – which is surprising since she’s from Belfast –  and you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve put the wrong CD in when you first hear tracks like “Danger In The Past” or “Goodbye Lennon”.

The album kicks off with the low-key “The Town” which does its job in setting the scene before the excellent “Like Straw Dogs”, which starts off at a similar pace to its predecessor but picks up halfway through and ends with a terrific guitar workout. There’s more good guitar work in “I’ll Stay Next To You”‘s simple but extremely effective riff, but the song, probably my favourite on the album, throws a curveball near the end and morphs into a pretty decent “West End Girls” pastiche – a clever precursor for the trip back to 1985 that occurs in “The Hive”, the sprawling 8 minute album centrepiece that follows. “The Hive” shifts and changes and even goes a bit proggy towards the end as the protagonists arrive in 1985 and take advantage of their journey to the past, getting to see The Smiths and spending time at the bookies.

“Danger In The Past” is a fine slice of electro-pop that owes a debt to the Pet Shop Boys and would be an obvious choice for a lead single. On the post break-up song “The Way She Walked Out The Door” the duo stop trading lines and give the song over to Band of Holy Joy’s Johny Brown, who also wrote the lyrics, in what is another brilliant move: the song recalls Brown’s band at the height of their powers in the late Eighties and breaks the album, and the couple, up nicely. They meet up again in “Goodbye Lennon”, another slice of classy electro-balladry set in 2015 where “Robbie’s dead but Pete’s alive”.

There’s enough in the way of great tunes, melodrama and surprises on Vanilla Swingers to keep you going back for more and it would be a great shame if it doesn’t reach the wider audience it deserves. It is available on CD from Rough Trade for just £4.99, albeit in a limited run of 1000, and as a free download here.

Vanilla Swingers – Like Straw Dogs

Vanilla Swingers – Goodbye Lennon

Posted by The Ledge on 4th October 2008 at 12:32 am | comments (5)
File under CD Reviews,Reviews.

Gig Review: Neil Halstead @ Sacred Trinity Church, Salford, 25th September 2008

We had quite a choice of gigs last Thursday and after planning to head down to the Night & Day for Broken Records we changed our minds, realising that we couldn’t pass up the chance to see Neil Halstead at Sacred Trinity Church. For starters, he tours rarely, whereas Broken Records are currently plugging away and are bound to be back soon when they have an album to promote. Secondly, Sacred Trinity Chuch is a wonderful venue and we could imagine hearing Neil’s beautiful folky, poppy ex-Shoegazer tunes echoing around the hall and we just knew it was going to be a good gig.

Daniel Land and the Modern Painters @ Sacred Trinity Church, SalfordOpeners Daniel Land and the Modern Painters started proceedings with what I can only describe as anthemic shoegazer indie. They reminded me a little of Doves and a little of defunct Manchester outfit Snowfight in the City Centre but with additional fuzzy guitar effects. I can equally imagine enjoying them in a dark, smoky basement with loads of smoke and backlighting as I can sitting in a field in the sunlight with a couple thousand people singing along. The songs were immediately effective and the band put in a good performance. The between-song banter was humble and funny and warm.

Neil Halstead has been on and off my radar for a while. I have one Slowdive album, Souvlaki, which I like but never really grew to love. I adore the first Mojave 3 album, Ask Me Tomorrow. Something about the way they marry the aesthetics of their shoegazer days with folky, twangy country tunes really appeals and the quiet restraint combined with the lyrics about love and loneliness still have me coming back to that album ten years on. I completely missed out on a couple of Mojave 3 albums but picked up Puzzles Like You, the most recent offering, to discover that they had mutated again and were writing pop gems that were more reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub than My Bloody Valentine. Needless to say we were expecting a bit of stylistic variety from Neil Halstead.

Neil Halstead @ Sacred Trinity Church, SalfordThe gig began with Neil sitting in a chair, playing soft folk songs on just his acoustic guitar before inviting the full band on stage. He was reserved, as expected, but did have a couple of funny stories to go with the songs – as folk singers do. He amused the crowd by playing a track he said he probably shouldn’t play in a church as it was about being woken up by people knocking on his door to teach him about Jesus Christ. The songs with the full band were still folky, with more of an Iron & Wine vibe than anything else – so it seems he’s gone the whole route from fuzzy guitars to soft country to American-influenced folk. Having heard music from every stage of his career, it actually makes sense – he’s always written light, airy melodies, he just changes the way he chooses to present them.

Midway through the set he sent the band back off stage so he could play a few Mojave 3 tracks for us. First asking the crowd for requests, he abandoned that idea when the only requests he received were for tracks he said he couldn’t play. He instead performed songs of his own choosing – sadly, songs whose names are unknown to us – before bringing the band back on stage to finish the set with a final few numbers before closing with a song about beards – dedicated to everyone with facial hair.

Overall, it was a lovely performance, pretty much what we expected, to be fair, and enough to recommend his solo album for purchase.

Neil Halstead – Martha’s Mantra (For The Pain)

Mojave 3 – She Broke You So Softly

Posted by JustHipper on 1st October 2008 at 8:40 pm | comments (2)
File under daniel land and the modern painters,Gig Reviews,manchester gigs,mp3,neil halstead,sacred trinity church.

Robert Forster @ RNCM, Manchester, 21st September 2008

Robert Forster @ Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
Robert Forster was in fine form when we saw him last Sunday night at the Royal Northern College of Music in what was his first time back in Manchester since the tragic and untimely death of close friend and songwriting partner Grant McLennan put an end to The Go-Betweens as a going concern and robbed the world of one of its finest songwriting talents. Grant was never far from our or, I suspect, most of the audience’s minds for much of the evening, his absence heightened by the familiarity of Forster’s backing band – Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson were both Go-Betweens in the band’s noughties revival. I was expecting some kind of tribute from Forster but he didn’t mention Grant at all; what was left unspoken came pouring out in a spine-tingling, beautiful reading of “Quiet Heart”, one of Grant’s finest songs and the only one of his played on the night.

The evening began with Forster alone with acoustic guitar, strumming his way through “Something For Myself” from Bright Yellow, Bright Orange. Tall, besuited and with an impressive mop of silvery hair he looked every bit the elegant elder statesman of pop that he now is. Band members were introduced one by one with Adele Pickvance appearing first for “If It Rains” followed a couple of songs later by Glenn Thompson, who was on guitar and keyboard duties, rather than drums, this time around, and then 21-year-old Matthew Harrison on drums. This first section of the gig really set the tone for the evening: plenty from his new solo effort, The Evangelist, and from The Go-Betweens’ post-reformation albums with a couple of golden oldies thrown in for good measure. Surprisingly, for me, it was the songs from the first of those latter day Go-Betweens albums, The Friends Of Rachel Worth, that made the greatest impression. “Spirit” and “When She Sang About Angels” – which was preceded by a rather long-winded anecdote about gatecrashing a Patti Smith gig at the Serpentine Gallery that was about twice as long as the song itself – really shone and had me rummaging through the CD racks at home this week for a quick re-evaluation of what was previously my least favourite Go-B’s long player. Forster obviously likes it, though, and played all five of his compositions from it on the night.

The gorgeous “I’m Alright” brought us up to the 15 minute interval (are these unnecessary interruptions a contractual obligation in theatre venues or just a ploy to sell more beer?) with Thompson perfectly replicating Grant McLennan’s fluid, melodic guitar parts, as he did brilliantly throughout the evening. The second part of the set was like a beefed-up, lengthier version of the first with Forster switching from acoustic to electric, but what it lacked in real surprises it made up for in sheer quality. We got fantastic versions of Go-Betweens classics “Head Full Of Steam” and “Spring Rain” that had me wishing that we were all jumping up and down and singing along at the Night & Day rather than sitting passively in a theatre. However the venue’s excellent acoustics really brought out the lush, rich textures of the likes of “Clouds”, “Dive For Your Memory” and “Darlinghurst Nights”.

A thunderous “Here Comes A City” brought an end to the main set and the encore saw an outing for a couple of his solo tracks from albums other than The Evangelist. I was really hoping for a few songs off his first, and best, solo effort, Danger In The Past, but all we got was “Heart Out To Tender”, which isn’t exactly my favourite. Oh, what I’d have given to hear “Justice”. Similarly, “I Can Do” was the sole representative from Warm Nights and there was nothing at all from Calling From A Country Phone. The classic “People Say”, from way back in 1978, brought events to a rapturous close and from the vibrant quality of the performance and Forster’s obvious enjoyment of proceedings, I’d say that there is still plenty more to come.

The Go-Betweens – Quiet Heart

The Go-Betweens – Head Full Of Steam

The Go-Betweens – Spirit

Robert Forster – Demon Days

Posted by The Ledge on 30th September 2008 at 10:05 pm | comments (4)
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