New Music 2015 - Part 38 - Joanna Gruesome - Peanut Butter

More new music from Wales but that is just about where the comparisons with my last post end.
This music is not sung in Welsh and the nearest it gets to a harp is that the band's name is a parody of that of Californian alt-folk harpist Joanna Newsome; indeed one of the latter artist's songs could easily be as long as the whole ten-track LP 'Peanut Butter'.  Only one track on it reaches the three-minute mark.

The party-line, almost certainly an urban myth, is that the five-piece met as students in Cardiff at an anger-management meeting. Its truthfulness doesn't matter  - it something you want to believe and the music lends credence.
It also shows the remarkable diversity in music coming from Wales - and Joanna Gruesome won the 2014 Welsh Music Prize on the basis of début LP 'Twisted Sister'.
The most obvious comparison here, as it is also Cardiff based, is Los Campesinos. I would like to remind you of this, which I mentioned here way back in 2007. I believe that Laura Bryon is still active in the music of South Wales.

It also puts me much in mind of the C86 ethic adopted-and-adapted, from about 2004, by the late, lamented south-coast based Help She Can't Swim. They both share a tendency to music in short-message format - it may not be original, but hell it is fun.
This is the playlist for 'Peanut Butter':

1. Last Year 2:52
2. Jamie (Luvver) 1:41
3. Honestly Do Yr Worst 1:51
4. There Is No Function Stacy 1:58
5. Crayon 3:10
6. I Don't Wanna Relax 2:15
7. Jerome (Liar) 1:39
8. Separate Bedrooms 1:59
9. Psykick Espionage     2:08
10. Hey! I Wanna Be Yr Best Friend   2:01

It is already released on LP, CD and d/l on Fortuna POP! (UK), Slumberland (N. America).

Some bands take years agonising over a sprawling second LP. It has taken barely a year for this 22 minutes of condensed madness to arrive.
 'Last Year' is the introductory, and the second longest, track on the album.

New Music 2010 #22 - Trash Kit - mayhem matters.

This may be one of the stranger posts of the year.  I've said before that I'm quite happy to buy new music without having previously heard any of it.  This falls in to that category. A few months ago I mentioned, and even posted about, Brighton's 'Help She Can't Swim' (HSCS) from a few years back. Further investigations lead me to the conclusion that it/they are no more - lost at sea, presumably? What is more, and perhaps even worse, is that fellow (former) Brightonians Electrelane seem to have disbanded too.  If you know something different about any of this then please just let me know!


Anyway, and for some reason, it came to my attention that Trash Kit's eponymous 2010 album might fix a gap and that amazon.co.uk were almost giving it away (£2.99 - with free delivery - but no longer it would seem). It arrived here this morning and it is destined to mess with Halloween quite gloriously!

I've got tomorrow's play list pretty much done but it is a bit heavy on long, brooding, and often largely instrumental, songs.  Rather like HSCS, Trash Kit doesn't do long drawn out songs but on the other hand is not quite so shouty (well just maybe). Be that as it may this takes some feat of précis - the album is composed of seventeen tracks but runs to just 27:48 in total.  Only five tracks exceed two minutes while track 9, the positively languid Natascha, exceeds three but not by much. Brevity can be a virtue and in this case, as with HSCS, it is.
Ros Murray (of Electrelane) plays bass throughout here whilst Verity Susman, also of Electrelane, plays saxophone on three tracks. Rachel Horwood sings and also plays drums throughout, while Rachel Aggs sings and plays either guitar or violin.
This is certainly no case of brevity for the sake of getting it over with. I like this album; in fact I like it a great deal.
It is Upset! The Rhythm UTR036.  They blog too: http://trashkitrules.blogspot.com/


The links below feature comment on Electrelane or members thereof:

• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2008/03/listening-today-not-new-and-without.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-shout-very-good-call.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/07/music-i-want-in-2009-part-9-new.html

I'm now reminded of another Brighton-based, at least in part, band that I feared may be no more. It is one that I have seen live and I now know that this is not true. Their third album is due in early 2011.

Committing Social Suicide (and, actually, why not)?

The existence and availability of this 2005 album on vinyl was asked of me last week and I was so pleased.  Had I not finally abandoned my addiction to simply the music I liked in my late teens and twenties I could never have provided any kind of answer: I would never have heard of it, let alone heard it!

One good thing that came out of my pre-modern liking for music, however, was an abiding passion for vinyl.

'Fashionista Super Dance Troupe' does exist on vinyl - FPLP010 - to the extent of 200 copies and this is one of them.  They are all pressed on turquoise-green vinyl and include a graphically illustrated lyric sheet.  The lyrics are, as US albums often state, 'Parental Advisory': so think twice before playing it to your elders and betters!
Finding a vinyl version is likely to be problematic but on CD and legal download it is widely available from the usual suspects.

More on HSCS very soon and as revealed on the singles and EPs (all vinyl, of course) they can even do sweet and tender (if not quite twee).

Where are they now? That question bothers me again all of a sudden!

More bands to see live.

My musings this afternoon, concerning those bands I might like to hear at a festival, have continued. In fact the excitement of not yet knowing which artists will be playing is probably one of the most appealing aspects.
Continuing the hi-energy theme, like The Go!Team, another band with Brighton connections would be right up there.

'Fashionista Super Dance Troupe' (Fantastic Plastic, 2004) was the first LP by shouty-punk quintet Help She Can't Swim. They returned, but as a four-piece, after a run of singles and EPs with their second album 'The Death Of Nightlife' (Fantastic Plastic, 2007). While they have never had mainstream success this is infectious music that could only benefit from being performed and heard live. Both albums are still readily available on CD and 'The Death Of Nightlife' can still be found on vinyl too. 'Fashionista Super Dance Troupe' exists on vinyl but only to the extent of three-hundred copies all of which were pressed on turquoise vinyl.

Some more Latitude 2008 acts have become known, amongst them M.I.A., The Breeders and Mars Volta. What fascinates me most now is who will be appearing on the smaller stages. I believe that Huw Stephens will once again curate the Lake Stage, which last year was a treasure trove of new and often less well known acts. Thinking of such things has reminded me that one of those artists previously unknown to me that I saw at Latitude 2007 was Candie Payne and, while the all-conquering Mark Ronson has recently been in the news for projects he is not involved in (Lily Allen's second album and the 'Quantum of Solace' Bond Theme' with Amy Winehouse are but two that come to mind), he is most definitely working on the follow up to 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' (Deltasonic, 2007), which was Candie Payne's début album and remains one of my favourite albums of 2007 and quite rightly so I believe.

Help She Can't Swim...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water along comes the return of Brighton-based Help She Can't Swim (HSCS) with 'Hospital Drama', the first single to be taken from their forthcoming second album The Death of Nightlife.
Released like the first, Fashionista Super Dance Troupe (2004) of which there were just 200 vinyl copies, by label 'Fantastic Plastic' it means a further feast of limited vinyl! Since the first album, and several 7" singles c/w non-album tracks, they have released two vinyl-only EPs:

• Committing Social Suicide (2005)
  
• Secret Garden (2006)
  

There are two 7" versions of 'Hospital Drama' available:

A picture disc c/w 'Wake Up' and a black 7" (and also CD) c/w 'Wretched'.

A five-piece for their first LP outing, their second LP sees them return as a four-piece and with their sound still evolving naturally. The current line up is:

Tom Denney - voice, guitar, keys
Leesey Frances - voice, keys
Tim Palmer - bass, keys
Lewis Baker - drums

The album Fashionista Super Dance Troupe is mostly fast, furious and often quite angry. It is where indie-pop with clever lyrics meets shouty-punk; that would be a conveniently lazy way to describe it.
In slightly less than 25 minutes Fashionista Super Dance Troupe romps its wilful way through eleven quite varied tracks, often with biting lyrics. Only the last one exceeds three minutes and that is 'Apples', which hints at something rather different. This nascent diversity becomes ever more obvious on the EPs mentioned above and it is certainly not something of which to be ashamed for a band that has never really fitted comfortably in any particular genre.

The latest single 'Hospital Drama' is still recognisably the HSCS of old, only better. The really surprising track of these three is 'Wretched' - a song that puts many similar attempts at the territory, including many by far better known artists, to shame by its sheer simplicity.