Thoughts on music - Introspection versus the bigger picture

Oh how a few weeks can change my perspective.
Only a short time ago I was happily enjoying writing about new music, either recent or soon to be released, without much thought about the wider picture. Then suddenly it changed and I decided that it was time to comment on other issues again whilst set in context  - today's issue just happens to be the various threats to live music venues, of which more later.
I don't really understand why this happens to me from time to time.
I could claim that it is the anticipation of forthcoming festivals but, were I to do that, I know it is not the whole story. It is true that in the last few weeks I have had some very interesting, sometimes surprising, discussions concerning music. I am unsure if this is causal or symptomatic but inclined to the idea that the latter predominates.
While writing this I am listening, in toto, to an album so new that it has no release date and no final artwork as yet. I have however already mentioned it here and Danni Nicholls is an artist who seems blissfully unaware of the affliction known as DSAS (Difficult Second Album Syndrome). The title 'Mockingbird Lane' almost hints at that but I'm almost certain that this was unintentional - or a very dangerous gambit indeed.
That said, the game is now on; the début album by The Shires, already the first UK act ever signed to Universal Music Nashville, yesterday became the first UK country act or artist ever to reach the Top 10 in the UK album chart - 'Brave' is #10 on the week of release. 

Should you want to hear something new, yet old and a train-wreck revisited, I can't think of anything more beautiful than this. Jessica Lea Mayfield and Seth Avett have recorded an album of covers of Elliott Smith songs. It is not yet on general release in the UK or North America and I suspect that the link is time limited, so enjoy this now. It is as good as anything that I have heard this year and that is saying something. There are reasons why I suspected Jessica Lea Mayfield could pull this off and resulted from when I saw her play live at End Of The Road 2010 - she played solo. It was hauntingly beautiful yet painful at the same time and if looks could kill I was in big trouble here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tipi stage - End Of The Road Festival 2010.

The LP is released in the UK on 16 March 2015.

Note added 7 April 2015:

The album has got mixed reviews: some say it is too cautious, reverential. Others quite the opposite, that it should have been more radical in its treatment of the original material or those that say that it should never have been attempted at all.
I think it is just spot-on - they got the balance almost perfect. If I could see Jessica and Seth play the whole thing live then I would travel far. It could quite easily turn out to be quite something for both artists come a year's time.

New Music 2014 - Part 4 - Smoke Fairies

I'm not sure that I have ever tried to write two posts on-line simultaneously but I see no reason why not to try it.
The Smoke Fairies self-titled forthcoming third album, released on 14 April by Full Time Hobby Records on DL (various file formats) to vinyl (but perhaps not cassette) just as you might wish.

Beyond that I can't tell you much other than to say that I have almost all of their previous LPs, EPs and none of them have disappointed.
I can't remember how I first came to know of them but the first time I saw them live was at Latitude Festival 2009 on the Thursday evening and a performance (in a marquee, fortunately) that was interrupted by a truly epic thunderstorm.  I shall look at the ghosts of festivals long gone and try and find some pictures.

This is the only remotely usable one from Latitude 2009 - Katherine Blamire on guitar.

On the Garden Stage at End of The Road Festival 2010 the sun was shining and all this explains, at least in part, why I wish to see them play live once again.

Jessica Davies playing slide guitar.

New Music 2012 - Part 13 - whispers on the wind

This is less focussed than most such posts: just things that I've seen, heard or otherwise divined in the last couple of weeks.
Back in 2009 and 2010 I mentioned Smoke Fairies on several occasions...
Their second LP and the follow-up to 'Through Low Light and Trees' is to be released in May; it is called 'Blood Speaks' and is, in as far as I can do so, pre-ordered already. The timing would be good for a festival or two this summer...
  
One thing that we do know is, while if you are hoping to see Joanne Shaw Taylor live in the UK this spring you might be disappointed, she is however busy recording her third LP. I have no idea of any release date, or title, but the mere fact can hardly be a bad thing. If waiting for that is too much, and really it should be...

New Music 2012 - Part 6 - totally acoustic.

This is another post that starts with an act that I have seen live at a festival, in this case EOTR 2010. This is Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell and I doubt that you can imagine any much more rustic than this at a festival. This one wasn't muddy at all but when travelling light it is best to fear the worst and go accordingly booted.  It certainly isn't some clever get-up and the music will, if I have failed to so, soon dispel that impression.

Kite - Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell is already released (Rabble Rouser Records, 2011).

I'd love to think that they will be back at the nicest of festivals in 2012, for they are the nicest of people. If I had to put a bet on it (which I'm in no position to do) it would be either of 'No Direction Home 1' (8-10 June 2012) or 'End Of The Road 7' (31 August - 2 September 2012). Be that as it may you need to check out the artists and acts already announced...
  
The next acoustic artist you might already have heard of, but probably not for the reasons that she took a year off for music before going to university - and that was over three years ago. Then things happened and she has only just this week started to do what she intended to start then, which is to record her first album [no release date, no title].
A whole lot of writing, for that is what she originally intended to do and also did, will stand her in good stead and I think it not unlikely that she will appear at one or the other of the above-mentioned festivals.

An ingenué she certainly is not, neither is she an attention seeker, and so while it was not her intention when she moved to London to then spend two years recording and touring with Bombay Bicycle Club, it is quite some achievement. Her solo vision is however undiminished - probably much enhanced by the experiences - and it remains her original aim.  Various comparisons have been drawn but in most ways they are unwarranted as neither she, nor indeed they, seem willing to become enemies over any perceived musical territory. There is quite enough space for them all.  If Lucy Rose is at a venue near you in 2012 then that is somewhere you need to be. 

New Music 2012 - Part 4 - Europe, Cyrk and things

Two more sophopmore albums, as it happens I said it might be like this, both of which are by acts/artists I have also already seen live and this makes me more confident about saying that they are unlikely to disappoint.
   
The first is London-based Allo Darlin', although singer and ukelele player Elizabeth Morris is Australian. Here they are (she has a band too) playing the 'Big Top Tent' at EOTR 2011 and I don't think I've used any pictures from this set before.

At the start of the gig there were a couple of hundred in the audience, by mid-way it was something else and prompted the comment that, "If we look nervous it's because we are. We've never played to an audience this size." It didn't show but before the end and the result of a much-passed bit of paper she read out a request from Joe to his girlfriend, both somewhere mid-way back in the crowd as it now was, and she said "yes".
The new album, 'Europe' will be out soon, released by Slumberland Recordings and distributed by FORTUNA pop in, erm, Europe.  You could call the music twee-core, but only at your peril. Who cares what it is "labelled" anyway?
  
In some ways you could say much the same sorts of things about this artist too. One who as it happens performed on the Garden Stage at EOTR 2010 in support of her début album 'Me Oh My', so here she is doing exactly that.

The new album, released on January 17 in the US by The Control Group, is Cyrk.
  

Note added January 10, 2012:

If you want to hear the above-mentioned 'Cyrk' on free, legal stream try this:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/01/video-premiere-cate-le-bon---fold-the-cloth-2.html

New Music 2012 - welcome to the New Year...

Just a few things to think about...

New music will come from somewhere. Americana will, almost certainly, not let you down. This, Aunt Martha - Norway, ME is well worth a listen.
Furthermore, if you like Dylan LeBlanc's first album Pauper's Field (2010) his soon to be released sophomore album might actually be even better and there is no more apposite time than early January to dig out some new pictures of live music in the English summer.
  

Dylan LeBlanc -  Garden Stage, End Of The Road 2010.

Shotgun Wedding - Caitlin Rose - lyric

I should have gone to bed by now but, when somebody asked if I could add any more lyrics of songs by Caitlin Rose, this was irresistible.  I've been meaning to do so for ages and it is another of the self-written tracks from the 2009 'Dead Flowers' EP and, typically so, it pulls no punches.
  
Shotgun Wedding
Meet, conceive and marry
True love's a shotgun wedding
There's no time to fool around
Cause you have no choices now.
  
Flowers in the backyard
With the family gathered round
True love's a shotgun wedding
And you can't plan it out.
   
Perhaps if it was passion
And not just circumstances
That you'd put a little of love
Into that question you are asking.
  
She lays a kiss upon your cheek
Her lips so full and round
True love's a shotgun wedding
Momma said don't fool around.
  
I know it seems awkward
But that ain't gonna stop her
This down-payment is a promise
That your love is gonna prosper.
  
The world just won't end
When you roll into town
True love's a shotgun wedding
With the layman writing down.
  
It's the right thing boy
Put that ring around her finger
And don't you stop to worry
That the feeling won't linger.
  
Light yourself a cigarette
While writing invitations
She knows its matrimony
What with child expectations.
  
You lay a hand upon her belly
That's so full and round
True love's a shotgun wedding
Momma said don't you fool around.
  
True love's a shotgun wedding
And you can't plan it out.
  
At her somewhat impromptu, and utterly triumphant, second performance at EOTR 2010 (headlining the 'Big Top' in place of the indisposed Steve Mason) she performed this solo on acoustic as the first of two 'encore' tracks...
It was not part of her set on the smaller 'Local Stage', which had already attracted much attention.  To mark that here is another photo, previously unseen, from the first set.

  

Portland, OR is never a place that takes music for granted and it shows in this review:

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/belle-of-the-bar/Content?oid=3720522

More Caitlin Rose posts:
Docket - Caitlin Rose - lyric
Live at End of The Road 2010
Answer In One Of These Bottles - Caitlin Rose - lyric 

I'm On My Own Side Now

I'm On My Own Side Now

The title is taken from one of the best songs on one of my favourite albums of last year by one of the most impressive new live artists I saw.  This version of the lyric is a close as I can get to that which she performed at EOTR 2010 (twice, on different days and on different stages). It is almost identical to the version on the album 'Own Side Now' though the live instrumentation was somewhat different.


Own Side
I'm goin' out on the town
Said I'm tired of chasin' you down
And it's not my right
To always push you around
I'm on my own side now


Who's gonna take me home?
Cause I don't wanna go it alone
Who's gonna want me when I'm just somewhere you've been
Who's gonna want me now?
And who's gonna take me home?


I'm gonna find me true love
Said I'm through asking you if you knew, love
How much it meant to me?
How it was meant to be?
And how it all feels empty?


Who's gonna take me home?
Cause I don't wanna go it alone
Who's gonna want me when I'm just somewhere you've been?
Who's gonna want me now?
And who's gonna take me home?


Who? [repeat x4]
And who's gonna take me home?
Cause I don't wanna go it alone
Who's gonna want me when I'm just somewhere you've been?
Who's gonna want me now?


Who's gonna take me home?
Cause I don't wanna go it alone
Who's gonna want me when I'm just somewhere you've been?
Who's gonna want me now?
And who's gonna take me home?


I'm goin' out on the  town
Said I'm tired of chasin' you down
And it's not my right
To always push you around
I'm on my own side now.


Own side now.


What I particularly like about it, and many of her other songs too, is its ambidextrous balance of emotion - it is outwardly-assertive indignation and gnawing self-doubt rolled together.  It is far from the only example in her song-writing canon - Learning To Ride, the first song on this, her début album proper, is another.  But then, listening back to the 10" vinyl mini album 'Dead Flowers' that is similar, for all its cover versions also themed likewise, and includes the splendid self-penned - and her live audience-sing-a-long anthem of the summer gone - Answer In One Of These Bottles.  I'll add the lyric for both as soon as I can.
This latter song also has an interesting parallel in a track by another of my favourite artists out of Nashville - Amy LaVere.  I believe that she has been busy writing and recording new material with her band for a forthcoming third LP...  The song to which I am referring, however, is from her 2007 (2008 in the UK in effect) album 'Anchors and Anvils' and is the track Pointless Drinking, credited to Paul Taylor.  That is verging in to New Music 2011 territory, but why not?


As a sting in the tail, I'm now well and truly cross with myself to have not managed to see 'She Keeps Bees' at EOTR 2009. I have read so many good things about the Brooklyn duo lately...  and they are readying their new album too.
  

Note added March 8, 2011:

Caitlin Rose is now confirmed to appear at EOTR 2011.

Note added February 3, 2011:
[If you are currently at The Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, London, where 'She Keeps Bees' is supporting Smoke Fairies this evening then you can buy it pre-release.


More Caitlin Rose posts:
Docket - Caitlin Rose - lyric
Live at End of The Road 2010
Answer In One Of These Bottles - Caitlin Rose - lyric
Shotgun Wedding - Caitlin Rose - lyric


  
Pointless Drinking - Amy LaVere - lyric

Dylan LeBlanc - EOTR 2010 - Part 6

Thoughts on music now concern, in large part, that which I have seen and heard in the last year and the season of compiling lists and making choices is soon upon us. I have a good idea how that works out in my opinion but, in the meantime, I don't think that it too late to mention a few other things for tickets for 2011 festivals are on sale or, in some cases, long sold.
I like new music. I like independent labels and Rough Trade Records has had a blinding 2010 in my opinion. To open a festival stage is a challenge; to open the main one on Sunday is to encounter an audience that, possibly unknowing of the artist in question, might also be tired and hungover.  That is an invitation only some might accept, but for the sake of ambition, and many would later rue.

He took the bit willingly and owned that stage for the duration.

The songs came (in large part) from his 2010 début album 'Pauper's Field'. You might argue that such musical territory is in general rather well populated just now, and you would be right, but I say it is for a reason and this album is a fine demonstration of just why so.

If you think that, just because I have already posted about some 2011 artists and albums, I'm now done with 2010 I hope to prove you wrong at least once. I'm not even done with 2005 yet, dammit.

New Music 2011 - Part 2 - (eponymously) Yuck

As I suggested a while back the début album by UK/US/Japanese band Yuck is to be titled exactly that. It is such a good name for both band and, by extension, not using it for the album would seem contrary.
It is due for release on January 10, 2011 and is a worthy topic of my second post concerning new music to which I am looking forward in 2011, which is not to say that I have lost hope for more worthy of comment in 2010.


I have seen Yuck live twice this year, so I feel able to comment, and on both occasions found them impressive which provides a link between this year and next.
This had many hallmarks of music that in all probability I would like.  I was truly impressed, to the point that what might have been an anticlimax exceeded any expectation that I had. More telling, perhaps, is the tenor of the comments that I overheard, or have received since then, by those who heard them with no preconceptions whatsoever, in some cases not even having any prior knowledge of their existence. 
There have been a couple of tantalizing releases to date:

This one, which was a limited cassette-only physical release (!) is, hence the parentheses, a stripped back, acoustic incarnation of Yu(c)k. I don't have this, nor currently any viable equipment on which to play cassettes, but it may still be available to download from the band's blog [I'll look in to that and report back].
There is also a three-track a 12" vinyl EP 'Rubber' that was released in October, 2010.

With the benefit of hindsight and reflection on my part, and in the light of this wider observation, they should be well worth watching and listening to in 2011.


Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  --- Esben and The Witch
Part 3  --- Duke Spirit
Part 4  --- Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team
Part 6  ---  Rhosyn
Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo

Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days
Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.
Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

Why music really matters (Part 3) - just because it does.

I've seen and heard a great deal of new music in 2010 and for that I am extremely thankful.  When it comes to taking stock, for the season of those end-of-year lists is fast approaching, it makes life challenging but also great fun.
What I find hardest to understand let alone to explain to others is why I like the music I do (and not that I don't) and why it changes.  On a day-by-day-basis I'm fine with it - just fits the mood or some other largely random trigger, such as hearing something played on the radio that brings back a particular time or memory.
It is the longer term trends, particularly the way I feel about music and the associated changes that I'm less certain about.  That is a shame because, in a deeper sense, I think this is the more fascinating aspect for it also begs the implicit question: "What is it about music, taken in all its forms, that makes it have such universal importance to human-kind?"  If it were simply an ephemeral pleasure I doubt it could invoke such passion and sometimes vehement disagreement.
The earlier posts are here:
Why Music Really Matters (Part 2)
Why Music Really Matters


I seem to have gone all philosophical on you, dear readers, but I am not going to apologise.  It also shows just how little, even now, we understand the detailed processes of the human brain that underlie culture in the broadest sense.
If this just sends you running for a copy of 'Steps - Gold' then it only serves to my illustrate my point but, equally, I must never judge you on your choices...


To lighten proceedings I'll add a few more pictures and thoughts from the last couple of years.  They will, of couse, be subject to my own bias in such matters...


This first artist, who I saw at EOTR 2010 (by the way the remainder of the tickets for EOTR 2011 are now on sale) has already been mentioned here.

Just testing: Jessica Lea Mayfield had to put her guitar back in tune and, as she was playing solo, bantered with the audience to fill the void in the performance.
I have found myself listening to the album 'With Blasphemy So Heartfelt' more and more in the last couple of months.  Her second album, slated for release in spring 2011, will be interesting indeed and she played a couple of tracks from it in this set.


One of the first artists I saw at Latitude 2007, on the Lake Stage on the Friday, was Cate Le Bon (no relation to Duran Duran's Simon, by the way).  It was her first festival performance and, to all intents and purposes, my first as a member of the crowd.  I have pictures that I took then and the crowd was numbered in dozens.  We crossed paths again at EOTR 2010 and it made me realise that I should have included (the much delayed) album 'Me Oh My' in my 2009 ' best-of' list.

Cate Le Bon played the (main) Garden Stage at EOTR 2010 on Friday afternoon.
Her first attempt at an album, 'Pet Deaths' was abandoned. In the meantime she released a 7" single, 'Can't Drag Me Down' and Welsh language 10" EP ' Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg'.

No complaints from the crowd of, I estimate, well the right side of a thousand.

If we can't work out the science it does not detract from the experience. Music matters because it does and why should we feel the need to justify that?

With Blasphemy So Heartfelt - EOTR 2010 - Part 4

When, some six months ago, I was reading the growing list of confirmed artists for End Of The Road 2010 (EOTR 2010) this was yet another from the US that made me wonder, and then realize, just how music of this genre is experiencing a surge in popularity here in the UK.  I had intended to get the album 'With Blasphemy So Heartfelt' but for one reason or another it slipped my mind.
Once I saw the full running order of acts, just a few weeks ago, it leapt back into my consciousness but rather than buy the album I determined to see her perform live first.  This was in direct contrast to Caitlin Rose, for example, as I had bought 'Own Side Now' a few weeks before EOTR.  In retrospect I don't think it makes much difference - I enjoyed both artists live and also like both the albums - though the perspective, and perhaps expectation, is subtly different if one hears an artist live before hearing anything that they have recorded.
One thing to mention: this is not remotely uplifting song writing. She actually said her own music makes her sad and that she wasn't born to write cheerful songs.  
That it not to say that one should only listen to them at times of euphoria; indeed they might then seem a little out of place. They could, however, find a welcome in the heart of anyone feeling down-on-their-luck for whatever reason.

The slogan on her cap very succinctly carries the theme.

The sense of loss, and sometimes loneliness, was enhanced by the fact that what you see above is the whole set-up.  The drum kit is a merely a reminder of that which had come before - the atmospheric and warm folk-electronica of the aptly-named five-piece Fuzzy Lights that I had also seen. The contrast was a good example of just how an artist can set the tone for the performance and hence the audience.

She performed the whole set accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.  It was some experience and one that is difficult to describe - often brittle and confessional but never something irretrievably depressive. I can only imagine that it is a fine line to tread.  You might say that this is something calculated, even manufactured, but my inclination is to think that it is nothing of the kind.  If I'm wrong then so be it; an even more remarkable achievement would be to feign it so convincingly.

She also revealed that she had just completed the recording of her second record 'Tell Me' due sometime in early spring 2011 if all goes according to plan, and that has to be worth the anticipation. I have seen a fair number of live performances in 2010 and I'm fortunate in that many of them have been very good indeed.  When, in a couple of months time, I try making choices about the most impressive of those that I have seen this is one that will certainly still be in my mind.

Smoke Fairies - EOTR 2010 - Part 3

Note added November 10. 2010:

UK tour dates in January & early February 2010 now on sale.

Now call me obsessive if you like - I know that I can deal with it - and as regular readers might well have noticed 'Smoke Fairies' have appeared in my posts on several occasions over the last few years.  I had seen them live two or three times before, most recently in the Film & Music tent at Latitude 2009, but this was their first time at EOTR. They were on The Garden Stage at 14:15 on a glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon.  The day's proceedings had been commenced by Rough Trade artist Dylan LeBlanc, who was also excellent.

Me, watching you, watching Dylan LeBlanc...

Surreal it is --- probably only EOTR lends itself to this.

Jessica Davies and Katharine Blamire met on their first day at secondary school in Eastbourne and soon discovered a shared love of music. Since then it has taken them to places as far afield as New Orleans for extended periods - Jessica now frequently plays slide guitar as a result I suspect (as she is doing in the image below) - which adds much to their sound and Vancouver and it all shows on the album Through Low Light and Trees.

On this occasion they also had pedal-steel guitar, bass and drums to accompany them.  Some that I talked to afterwards were of the opinion that it distracted from their fundamental sound; I appreciate where they are coming from but my own opinion is that it worked out quite well on a larger stage.

     Through Low Light and Trees, the album, is simply fantastic: a perfect foil for fall.

North-eastern folk - EOTR - Part 2

I saw a trio of acts that fall in to this general category last weekend and of them I have already mentioned 'Lanterns On The Lake' briefly.  The other two were arguably more traditional even if much of the material was new or at least recent.
I saw a very small part of 'The Unthanks' set at Latitude 2010 and was banking on seeing the full set at EOTR 2010.  This avoided clashes between artists I wanted to catch at Latitude and also it struck me that the Garden Stage at EOTR would be a more suitable setting than the Obelisk Stage at Latitude.  I was lucky - the weather was glorious last Saturday afternoon - in that I made exactly the right decision back in July.

This performance was indubitably one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

 It wasn't a weekend short of highlights, that is for certain.

In some ways they are iconic as regards the popularity of music that is folk and folk-influenced; something which currently commands currency on both sides of the Atlantic.  It is all part of a fascinating dichotomy in music today.

Here is a thought: I doubt that few of the crowd watching this were anything other than quite conversant with music from the likes of Eminem, Lady GaGa and Scissor Sisters -  yet they could also sing 'Here's The Tender Coming' back to The Unthanks when invited to do so.
Last, but certainly not least, Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell performed in the Tipi Tent earlier the same afternoon and I was very glad that I caught that set too.  This set was very well attended, as indeed were all those that I attended in the two smaller venues.  This explains why both the Tipi and Local stages have been significantly enhanced in capacity since EOTR 2009.

Lucy Farrell & Jonny Kearney, Tipi Stage, EOTR 2010, on Saturday afternoon.

EOTR is the kind of place where, should you wish, you can chat (with hitherto complete strangers) about musical influences, chord progressions and signature time changes and no-one will think it strange at all.  Equally improbably, can you imagine GaGa performing in muddy wellies that look as though they might be in daily and not just festival-only use?  It must have been a fashion statement as waterproof footwear was happily quite unnecessary at EOTR 2010.

Nine hours and gone...

This is what happened when EOTR 2011 'early bird' tickets went on sale this morning. There are some more, at 2010 prices, on offer now but limited again, but does this tell you something about how good EOTR 2010 actually was.  I have a 2011 ticket but I'm still just coming to terms with EOTR 2010 and the acts that I saw. This is just one little piece of the jigsaw.

Saturday: Caitlin Rose live on the Local stage @ EOTR 2010.

On Sunday, co-opted to the Big Top to replace the unavailable Steve Mason, she finished with two songs accompanied only by herself.  The first was her own song 'Shotgun Wedding', from the Dead Flowers EP, and the second was a headlong cover of 'Tomorrow is a Long Time'.  I've mentioned the dangers of cover versions before; played and heard live this Dylan song was a quite remarkable example of how it can be done.


Note added March 8, 2011 (and later):
Caitlin Rose is now confirmed to appear at EOTR 2011, Truck Festival 2011 and Latitude 2011. 

EOTR and The Pirates of Providence...

I wasn't planning to put a finger to the keyboard about EOTR 2010 until Wednesday at the earliest but you, whoever you are,  just got the better of me by asking the right question.
Low Anthem and friends in the Tipi Tent -  and so what's not to like!  My pictures aren't much good but since you asked here is one of them taken early on in the proceedings. 

This is just one of the many things that makes EOTR unique...

Latitude 2010 → EOTR 2010 → New Music 2010 - Part 17

With EOTR 2010 just a few days away and Latitude 2010 still quite fresh in my mind, it is time to tackle a few more images, expectations and hopes for the future. If the following is a little unfocussed, or simply downright confusing, then I'm afraid that this is simply an occupational hazard of 'Thoughts on Music'.  It may completely mystify but, even if not a single person reads it, writing it does make things clearer to me and that matters.
There is some overlap between acts that appeared at Latitude and those to appear at EOTR.  I used that to try and minimize conflicts when I wanted to see more than one act that was performing at the same time. Here are three such that I did at least catch some of at Latitude. Someone asked, only a few days ago, for today's thought on Latitude... 
Oh, how I wish I could but writing a daily post still remains something of a distant ambition.  These photos are probably not the best but hopefully they convey at least something of the atmosphere and the musical variety to be found at such festivals...

This was simply perchance - I admit that I had never heard of her before - but that is all part of the wonderful festival experience. It is that moment; when something or someone impinges on your musical conscience for the first time.  I think that she is a late addition to the line-up at EOTR 2010.


The foregoing is not true of this band. Canadian psychrock five-piece 'Black Mountain' are on the cusp of releasing their third LP, Wilderness Heart, and I own and adore the previous two. This one is just a little different --- and no less awesome.

Stormy High.  Black Mountain live @ Latitude 2010, in the Word Arena.

I wasn't really close enough to do this justice but, let me tell you this, Black Mountain rock.  I can't wait to hear them again at EOTR 2010. The LP Wilderness Heart is high on my list of New Music I Want.

While the music is completely different, The Unthanks are another EOTR act that I caught only very briefly on the Obelisk stage at Latitude 2010.

I think a more intimate setting will suit both them and their music to perfection but that they, and many others of folk-influenced persuasion, played the main stage says a whole lot about music today... I can't wait to see the full live set.

That, of course, is not to say that the whole scene was for ageing folk-hippies...  This act is quite the opposite but on the other hand most of the little kids, there with their parents, seemed to find this act absolutely riveting...  It was the second time that I have seen them live - and for all the chaos [and the almost inevitable premature ending] - it was better than the first and only slightly less scary as I was further away from the front than when I saw them on the Sunset Stage at Latitude 2007.

It is strange to say this but, for all the chaos and strife, Crystal Castles has the same kind of attraction that the equally tempestuous and unpredictable Libertines did (and post-Leeds/Reading 2010 now have once again). Live, while it lasts, they are totally magnetic. The album Crystal Castles II (2010) is pretty flawless; what they self-destroy while performing live is really rather haunting when recorded in the studio and never more so than when recorded on vinyl.

The list of UK bands that I have seen/want to see is growing by the day.  Here are another few pictures from Latitude 2010. I have mentioned all these acts before.

The Good Natured live @ Latitude 2010.

Yuck - as well as their album I'm looking forward to their acoustic side-project as Yu(c)k. The band is performing at EOTR 2010 too.

As I am mentioning forthcoming new music I could hardly fail to include 'Without Why', which has now been released.  Rose Elinor Dougall made a good case for it at Latitude.
If you include acts from outside the UK the list is...
to be quite frank, almost endless.