Misfortunes and Minor Victories - EOTR - Part 1

As I mentioned before I had not intended to comment on End of The Road 2010 until today at the earliest.  That the best laid plans founder is no surprise and, in this case, I'm thrilled by the way it has taken wings.  I wish I could mention everything that made it special for me in just one post but the truth is that I simply can't.  I haven't even looked at more than a third of the pictures that I took yet, but I'll get there!  What I will say is that I will mention the less well known acts as often as the better known ones.
Several people have searched for this one already and the band were particularly unlucky...


Lanterns On The Lake:
Their set, which as they stated at the time was for the largest audience to whom they had ever played, was tragically curtailed part way through the final song when the Tipi Tent (and adjacent facilities) suffered a total power failure.  That said, for as long as it lasted, they were a real stand-out act for me - one of those that made me realise that there is so much more to be heard.  I took pictures and, come the premature end of the set, I bought all three EPs that were available (not the sort of impulse purchase that I succumb to very often)...   Buying music after the first time of hearing can often be something of a mistake; when that hearing is live then it is even more dangerous but I did it anyhow.

This is just the first photo from that set I have got around to dealing with, in terms of  re-sizing etc.

I could however listen to those EPs all day, and all night too.

This is one reason why festivals matter so much, particularly if you are interested in live music: the artists that you know might very well be awesome but some of the ones you don't always are.  It is, all things considered, a lottery: one with a far higher yield than most.

New Music 2010 - Part 14 - Albums for Autumn

I thought that I would take a break from my musings on Latitude 2010, of which more soon, to mention forthcoming albums by two acts that have already featured here before and both of which I have heard live.

The first comes from duo 'Smoke Fairies' whose stock has been much in the ascendant in 2010, following high-profile support slots and a trip to the US.  After an impressive run of singles and EPs, many of them on vinyl, their début album Through Low Light and Trees is to be released by V2 Coop on September 10 in the UK on 12" vinyl, CD and download. Those of us lucky enough to be going to End Of The Road Festival 2010 that weekend will also have the pleasure of seeing and hearing them perform live on September 12.

This is the album artwork and here is the track listing and also a legal freebie:

Through Low Light And Trees - Smoke Fairies

1. Summer Fades

2. Devil In My Mind
3. Hotel Room
4. Dragon
5. Erie Lackawanna
6. Strange Moon Rising
7. Morning Blues
8. Storm Song
9. Blue Skies Fall
10. Feeling Is Turning Blue
11. After The Rain

"New Album Track 'Strange Moon Rising' now on myspace and also available as a free download from the website www.SmokeFairies.com by signing up to the mailing list. If you're already on it, don't worry we'll be sending you a mail shot with a link very soon!"

For my comment on Smoke Fairies live, at End Of The Road 2010, see here:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/09/smoke-fairies-eotr-2010-part-3.html

The next item to catch my attention is the second album release by Imelda May. The excellent 2008 début Love Tattoo will be followed (on October 4 in the UK) by Mayhem, which is released by Decca (yes, really).

I am currently unable to say whether this will be available on 12" vinyl but the lead single Psycho, released on June 28, most certainly is available on 7" vinyl.  I posted my thoughts on Imelda May live in Frome last year.

Both of these are well and truly on my list of forthcoming albums and I'm very much looking forward to hearing both.  They are not the only ones by any means...

New Music 2010 - Part 11

Where to start?  It goes like this as often as not.  After what seems like weeks of waiting a whole host of new music impinges on my consciousness at once; it is not all about the music it is in part about me.

This one I can't wait to hear but the release date is  September 13 in the UK (a day later in the US and their native Canada).  I am, however, off to both Latitude and End Of The Road festivals and this band is performing at both of them.

Wilderness Heart - Black Mountain

This is the third album from the prog/psych outfit from Canada, a band that I have long wanted to hear live. Now I have two chances and the opportunity to hear some of the new material before the release of the album.  This band has also spawned two side-projects - Pink Mountaintops and Lightning Dust - and I'm rather hoping that the 'secret stages' at EOTR might provide an opportunity to catch either one or both of these (please).

Those heading to Leeds/Reading Festivals will have the opportunity to see the band that, almost single handedly as they headlined Sunday at Latitude 2007, convinced me that I needed to go to a festival again and that band is of course Arcade Fire.  

 They release their third full length album, The Suburbs, on August 2 in the UK.

Whatever you currently think of their music I can pretty much guarantee that you will see an incredible performance.  It is no coincidence that I am still going to festivals three years later and would like to add more to my schedule if that proves possible.  Enjoy!

This only covers part of my interest in music and only part of that which comes from Canada. My first thought about this is 'help, help and rescue!' but, on the other side of the coin, that leaves a whole load more new music for another post or three.

At some times I only want to listen familiar music while at others I really want to discover new music including new acts and new genres.  It would be really useful if I could understand why this is.

Havoc In Heaven - Festivals 2010

It is time for something more uplifting or, at the very least, forward looking. This is what I intended to post about yesterday but in some ways I'm glad that I never did as I have rather more to add now.
To start with I am going to indulge my liking for American music - the reason being that I feel justified in doing so. I don't feel any compunction about this - UK music is in fine form too, the trade is bi-directional and long may it last for mutual benefit. I'll start my list with artists that I'm looking forward to, and of an acoustic bent. On the UK side these obviously include Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons.

On the American side, and like the above both now confirmed for Latitude 2010, are the following:

The hat is probably more suited to the Manchester climate than that of California?

There have been parallels made in both cases, some of them quite tenuous, with Laura Marling. In all honesty I don't think that either side is likely to have any problem with the other. The really strange thing is that only a few years ago who could have imagined that, instead of hard-core rap, we would be trading banjo-wielding singer-songwriters?

Another artist and a stranger tale still is that of Jesca Hoop. We have long been used to UK artists eloping to the sunnier side of the Atlantic but she has now been co-opted as a Manucunian; the grey skies and drizzle perhaps being more conducive to song-writing? At least there is a good excuse to stay in and get on with it and, when it arrives, the fleeting sun will seem far more precious!
On the other hand hers is not a conventional background anyway; she is from a musical, Mormon family but later trod her own path and in time that included being live-in nanny for Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's three kids. Now that is something - Waits' music is challenging in itself, his comments on artists perhaps even more so. I'm not sure if she plays banjo but I wouldn't rule it out...

Lissie, a native of the part of Illinois bordering the Mississippi River, most certainly does and without any need to apologize. She is performing on the 'Sunset Stage' at Latitude 2010. It is tented, relatively small and leaks if it rains, but is actually my favourite... I will never forget seeing Crystal Castles there in 2008 - it was possibly the most frightening live performance that I have ever seen.

Lissie is not going to be scary like that... but the reviews are already quite something and she seems to be setting-up-shop in the UK for what passes as our summer. If you want to catch her live, sooner rather than later, here's your chance.

That is not to dismiss the chance to witness a full set by Sweden's 'First Aid Kit' either. They had to cancel at Latitude 2009 but I did get to see them at EOTR 2009.

They are returning to Latitude 2010 supporting their first full-length album, 'The Big Black & The Blue', and for good reason.

Slightly modernised but only in a way that kept it relevant to the early 21st century their with-no-clever-tricks-at-all live take on 'Universal Soldier', written by Buffy Sainte-Marie and from the album 'It's My Way' (1964), was actually more devastating than it was sublime.

It was received with a resonance that befitted it - awe and total silence - and a rare moment when thoughts from the Cenotaph came to a festival.

Not many can do that and fewer those still in their teens - although many of those killed in The Great War were exactly thus.