EOTR 2011 - Friday from America

Of course there was a wealth of acts from the US appearing over all three days of End Of The Road 2011 but Friday threw up a particularly interesting selection of ones that I really wanted to see performing live representing both coasts and much that comes between. I really enjoyed all of these sets. Here are two of them:

Tipi Stage, early Saturday afternoon - Sarabeth Tucek.

Her second album 'Get Well Soon' was released earlier this summer. I have had her self-titled début since it appeared in 2007 but I have no idea quite how I came to hear of this in the first place. Suffice it to say that it has been listened to consistently ever since. Neither album is really to be described as feel-good music at all, because the tone is too introspective and self-analytical for that. It is however very comforting and, while this might seen an odd thing to say when commenting on a festival performance, perhaps best listened to alone even if alone as part of a crowd and being in a crowd can be a particularly alienating kind of loneliness.
  

The contrast with the next act could hardly have been more pronounced. In a couple of minutes I walked from the indoor intimacy of the Tipi stage to the glorious afternoon sunshine of the Wood Stage and in doing so I travelled from the preoccupations of the Atlantic north-east to those of the beaches of California.

This was feel-good, beach party music. I swear I could hear the sound of surf by the end of the set.

This is Best Coast. Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno. Wood Stage, Saturday afternoon.

  

I couldn't convince the others that this was the way forward so I went along regardless. The whole point of music such as this, as I see it, is that it is frivolous and inconsequential fun. The whole set followed this approach, and it was great. In between the songs random chat involving such things as Snacks' thoughts on life - Snacks is Bethany Cosentino's cat, who appears on the 'Crazy For You' album cover and also in numerous band publicity shots, in case you were wondering!

This could all lead to a diffuse, rambling performance. It took me a few songs to work out why it was not so. One person, and only one person, was in charge of this live show and that was the drummer, Ali Koehler.

The Longest Day - nearing half-time in 2011

There is irony in that now I have got reliable broadband after almost three weeks without I can't seem the pick up the threads again, which along with other events, explains the slightly cryptic, even diffuse, title.
The fact is that I don't really know what it is going to be about; it is a journey I just had to start before the destination was apparent. In that sense it is akin to last year's rambling (as yet still incomplete) that was New Music 2010 - Part 16 - Across America in music but is written two months earlier  in the musical calendar.
At this point I am only musing on the festivals that I am yet to attend but in many ways the picture is becoming clearer now that I'm actually writing again. That said it may take a while for this to become apparent, if indeed it ever does.
Those artists that I mentioned in the above might actually be a good place to start: Avi Buffalo at Latitude 2011 and Best Coast at EOTR 2011 - and I have seen neither live  but have spent much of the last six months listening to the respective albums.  Switching to the US East Coast two acts that I am very much looking forward to, although very different one from another, are Sarabeth Tucek, who recently released her second album 'Get Well Soon', and Brooklyn's Violens.  Having seen School of  Seven Bells, Chairlift and Telepathe at various points over the last couple of years I have high hopes.
As an aside while on the theme of East Coast artists, Marissa Nadler has just revealed  her fifth album ' Marissa Nadler' and the first to be released on her own label,  Box of  Cedar Records; and given that her 2009 album 'Little Hells' is still right up there on my playlist this is a definite must-have purchase.  I'm not, however and if the art work wasn't a clue, promising that this post will be a whole load of easily accessible summery music.  On the contrary some of it will likely be far more challenging, which is always a good thing.

Marissa Nadler is someone that I have never seen perform live and as far as I know she is not gracing UK stages this summer season.  Getting side tracked like this is something that I'm rather good at; should I mention the forthcoming album by Rosi Golan?  Later maybe...
  
Another realization is that, increasingly so, I have the opportunity to see acts that I have seen in previous years so that I should be able to compare and contrast.  This is something that I am looking forward to as, and this much is always the case, the new acts and artists.  Here are two, starting with the more guitar led:  British Sea Power  and Foals.  On the other hand there are  new guitar bands that I have never seen before: The Vaccines being just one amongst them...  It is going to be interesting, which ever way you look at it .

New Music 2011 - Part 14 - and festivals - Part 1

What a remarkable week. While my computer seems, to all intents and purposes, to be working normally someone seems to have installed spy-ware in my mind!
So many acts recently announced - for both Latitude and End of The Road festivals - that were on my must-see-live list.  The next problem, I just know it, is what to do when more than one of them are performing on different stages at the same time. It is however one of the more pleasing problems to have...
  
So where to start?  Well... The big names you will probably know about already and so I'll leave those amongst them that particularly excite me for later. They can wait. While many of the acts on smaller stages are yet to be revealed, I'm going to start with one of those that already has been confirmed for EOTR 2011.
She released her self-titled first album in 2007, having sent the demo to Bob Dylan, and it is still available but currently costly on CD at least in the UK.  EOTR have announced that Sarabeth Tucek will be appearing and her début was one good album:

I've never had the opportunity to hear her perform live but the album is still just as impressive as it was almost four years ago. It is gently reflective in mood and therefore should suit the EOTR surroundings well but that is not all.

Her sophomore release 'Get Well Soon' is released in the UK on April 4, 2011 on vinyl, CD and d/l (label: Sonic Cathedral) and, curiously, the cover artwork could very easily be a view across the lake at Henham Park (home of Latitude); I'm thinking looking across towards the reeds (that one passes on the path to the Sunrise stage) from the area to the right of the bridge when looking across the lake from the main part of the arena.
This is not 'sudden impact' music but if you like the insidious liquidity of much Americana - and I for one certainly do and it is part of a canon that is becoming increasingly important - it and much more too is well worth investigating.
Incidentally there will be two bridges across said lake at Latitude this year, to relieve the overcrowding, and apparently also an improved entrance to the arena for much the same reasons. The latter in particular is overdue - as it was an issue in 2009 also - as would trying to stick to the advertised open-gate time. If there is a real issue then fine, in which case a bit more in the way of effective communication would be appreciated by all.
Things inevitably do go awry sometimes and most people can appreciate and accept that. It would also make life more pleasant for the festival staff too; I know that, if I were one of them, I'd be pretty frazzled if I was repeatedly asked 'WTF is happening?' when the fact of the matter was that I didn't even know myself.

New music, old technology...

This is a post with a difference. Some of it will be music new to me, that I have recently acquired, and some will be things that I've heard about and are now on my wish list. The first is in the former category.

What to say? Well, for a start, if you thought you might like Regina Spektor (Begin To Hope, 2006), but found it a bit more weird anti-folk than perhaps you imagined, this could well be more to your liking. I like it too, indeed more with every listen, but I actually fell foul of one of my own rules here! If an album that I'm reasonably sure I will like is available on vinyl then I will buy it on that format if the price is not unreasonable. It was and, unfortunately, I didn't! It is not music for a party or that to listen to while preparing for a night out.

Now here is another US act and one that I haven't heard yet. They are now signed to Bella Union in the UK, an independent label that was very prominent at Latitude 2007, and I have high hopes for one of their newest signings; Fleet Foxes are from Seattle.

Sun Giant EP - Fleet Foxes (SubPop, 2007)

Their eponymous début album should appear on Bella Union in the next couple of weeks. The current date is 9th June (in the UK) and it should also be available on 12" vinyl too.

I know my liking for vinyl is slightly archaic, but I also know that I'm far from the only one who appreciates its tangibility, and thus this article on the BBC website today made me feel good. I could not, of course, blog using a typewriter but that they still have their devotees certainly had some resonance.

When one of the biggest acts of the 21st century sees fit to make the only physical release of the first single from their new album available only on 7" vinyl, who I am I to argue?