New Music 2012 - Part 16

This first is something that I mentioned as up-coming a while back. It is 'Europe', the second album by Anglo-Australians Allo Darlin'.

It is released on Slumberland Records on May 7, 2012 - LP, CD & d/l

I saw Allo Darlin' live at EOTR 2011 and it was a wonderful set; that they could hold a candle to any other act there was certainly no mean feat. This album is a demonstration of that; there is no question about it in my mind.

Here is an image from that performance in the 'Big Top' at End Of The Road Festival 2011.

The second act is one I have been meaning to seek out for some while but only a chance reminder, Amazing Radio playing one of their songs, prompted me to do so at last. That band is a five-piece from Leeds, Ellen and The Escapades, which has only recently released its début LP 'All The Crooked Scenes' on Branch Out Records.

It is an album of beautifully poised contemporary summer folk. The album is available on LP, CD and d/l and Ellen & The Escapades is high on my list of bands to see live this summer.

Karine Polwart - Live @ Rook Lane Chapel, Frome

Following on from the success of the first Frome Folk Festival came the first visit to Frome of Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart. Rook Lane Chapel is a wonderful venue and absolutely ideal for concerts such as this and there was nothing to disappoint a near sell-out audience. Support was provided by an up-coming artist from Bath, Beth Porter, who was playing solo (rather than with her varied-in-composition backing group 'The Availables') but that did not did not detract from the performance one bit.  Songs such as murder ballad 'Salty Water' are good in whatever format they are played. She announced that her début album is on course for release before the end of the year; there is an EP 'Red Floor #3' already released.
  
Karine and her two accomplices, her brother Steven and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson (originally from Fair Isle, no less), provided a lengthy and stellar set.

As well as the expected favourites it notably included at least five tracks that will be on her forthcoming fifth studio album: 'Traces' is due for release on August 13. Judging from what we heard yesterday evening it is going to be rather special and most certainly not apolitical. That is something artists only tend to do when they feel comfortable and the audience is already on-side, which it clearly was as demonstrated by two encores - the second of which was a audience sing-along cover of Abba's 'Waterloo'.
  
There were a couple of solo numbers and this one is Inge singing a traditional Shetland song accompanying herself on piano accordion.

New Music 2012 - Part 15 - Dear Prudence

One of the best things about new music is when it just appears in my consciousness quite unexpectedly. So it is with this five piece, fronted and founded by Madi Ponica and based in Brighton, that has also taken a rather dangerous name as its own.  It could, owing a debt in kind to Siouxie and The Banshees and maybe even The Beatles via The Cure, have been a complete disaster from the outset. It isn't. The first single is 'Valentine' and this is the artwork for it.

It is early days, certainly, but I'm listening carefully and think 'Dear Prudence' has potential in 2012. They are too young to remember and also too wise and ingenious to merely parody...
Were I booking acts for summer 2012 this one would, without doubt, be high on my list. If they can pull off an album as good as these songs, that matches their obvious talent and ambition and they are wisely being secretive about their plans for realizing this, then I wouldn't bet against them for a moment. In fact it is already a much better bet than you-can-guess-who (for prudence does not become him) --- and that is why I am at home and writing this just now: His loss and their gain!
  
Link added April 24, 2012:
http://mtmbroadcasting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/dear-prudence-gig-review-green-door.html

New Music 2012 - Part 14 - Metric 'Synthetica'

Metric will release its fifth studio album on June 11 in the UK and June 12 in North America (that is simply a chart-counting related issue).  This is the album art now that I have reduced it from 3690 x 3690 pixels to a more manageable, unless that is you want to project it on to a large flat wall, 800 x 800 pixels!

The usual problem with pre-release album art is that it is small and grainy; so even making it workable at 320 x 320 pixels for use in the side-bar of the blog can be a challenge. That is not a problem in this case but on the other hand I have never seen Metric live, which is something I might just have to put right this year and, because I can certainly do so, this is the track list:

  

SYNTHETICA
1.     Artificial Nocturne
2.     Youth Without Youth
3.     Speed The Collapse
4.     Breathing Underwater
5.     Drums So Real
6.     Lost Kitten
7.     The Void
8.     Synthetica
9.     Clone
10.   The Wanderlust
11.    Nothing But Time
  
Their second studio album 'Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?' (2005) was one of the first I ever posted a comment on and as such it pre-dates this blog. Rather more importantly I still love it to bits!  

Record stores, vinyl, live music and poster art.

Saturday next, April 21, is Record Store Day...  certainly the biggest and sure to be the best yet.  All kinds of traditional High Street shops have been struggling of late, and record shops for longer than most - a couple of decades at the very least - but now the green blade rises.

I believe that, while it may sound contrary to say it, the legion of ways that the rise of the internet has heralded in recent years actually has something to do with this. In particular it has provided new means for artists and fans to speak once again, other than chance meetings at live performances. It has cut out much of the stultifying meddle-middle-muddle that did nothing for communication and, very often, little more for the acts in terms of meaningful promotion either.  If they didn't turn into an instant 'hit' for the major label they were cut-adrift from the contract and, more often than not, simply vanished.

North America kept live music going, more or less, and in time that slowly spread back to the UK and Europe. I am not there, sadly, but I can watch many of the highlights of Coachella 2012, and pretty much live, if I chose to do so. It made very diverting breakfast-time watching (owing to the time difference) this last weekend, I must say.

Returning to Record Store Day 2012 the wealth of special, limited edition, releases is quite simply staggering...

It has also stimulated an outbreak of poster art from the stores taking part - also part of a resurgent theme as it has become a feature of live events once again.  Here are half-a-dozen that have caught my attention over the last fortnight or so and in no order other than that in which I noticed them...

  

  

  

  

OK, it is a baker's half dozen because I couldn't resist the last one.

Neon Music has decided that Hungary needs a Record Store Weekend and, who knows, maybe that is the way to go.

It is just one of those things...

To be fair it is not often that one needs 'one of those things' and especially when a new release is concerned. The 'thing' in question pre-supposes that you are already equipped to play vinyl. They were widespread way back when - not least because most foreign (that is in this respect non-UK) and also almost all juke-box vinyl 45s used this format.
This one does too, and it is about as new as you can get.

Heavy Chevvy, Pocket Change and Mama are not tracks on the album 'Boys & Girls'.

Last Thursday is a long time in Music

Last Thursday I wrote something, about the passing of Jim Marshall and his influence on electric guitar music. That included the comment that, at least in the UK, it is somewhat out of fashion.
That would be quite inconsequential were it not for this...  much hailed as just more 'southern fried rock', something long forgotten and also forever indie, so Alabama Shakes was derided by much of the music industry. It is a cliché that, I'm pleased to say, I don't think they could ever stoop so low as to reach; it was, however, tentatively predicted to gradually conquer at least the more receptive parts of the UK audience through live performance.
  
Be that as it may, the latest UK album chart mid-week predictions suggest otherwise - the début album 'Boys and Girls' is really on to something... it was only released - vinyl, CD and d/l on Monday, 9 April in the UK by indie label Rough Trade Recordings.  There's serious trouble afoot and it is just possible that it will top the UK album chart on its week of release. WTF is that about?
The album is extremely good, and not just for a début, but more than that the band's live reputation is already firmly established. The band is awesome live but, unusual in such a genre, so too is the contribution by vocalist Brittany Howard.
  
The album artwork has a quite unsurprising geometry:

Alabama Shakes is confirmed for End Of The Road 2012 (EOTR 2012). I, for one, can't wait.

Thoughts of forthcoming UK 2012 Festivals.

I haven't forgotten how to write, and I certainly haven't forgotten how to read or listen either. To follow in the coming weeks are some of my thoughts summarized by the post title and also by this lyric...
  
But who cares what the night watchmen say
The stage has been set for the play.
  
Townes Van Zandt is sadly unable to be there in person, although perhaps still present in spirit. On the other hand and in a similar, but mortal, vein Richard Buckner will be appearing at End Of The Road 2012. If that is something the same event also features a legend of Americana before the term was coined, or at the very least widely understood - Van Dyke Parks. From writing lyrics for The Beach Boys album Smile (he lived to see it released, if not as it was originally intended), as amazingly so did Brian Wilson (although not functional as originally intended), much more recently he conceived much of the arrangement and the production of Joanna Newsom's Ys (2006). In-between times, and amongst many other projects, he recorded and released six albums of his own material.

Jim Marshall - a man beyond music

It is so iconic, of amplified music, that it is indelible. Today Jim Marshall passed away... you know those ubiquitous amps, of course you do, but likely never thought about how they came to document and then define electric guitar music in particular for almost half a century.
http://marshallamps.com/
Now you do.  The next time you see one, and I'd wager that will be soon,  just remember Les Paul and Leo Fender too: the electric guitar ain't dead yet... far from it. Here's to the next half-century.

Murderous, Modern and Urban?

Much has been written, and much more doubtless will be, about the corrasion (rather than mere corrosion) of some modern 'urban' music and in particular that it dwells heavily on themes of injustice, death, violence, and murder.

That is true but equally it is nothing new - the folk canon is replete with such themes in all forms --- from the night songs (of lovers lost) to the murder ballads in which the boot is on the other foot.  The stories are often old, the telling of them not always so much so:
  
Charlotte Dymond
In early April
1844
I heard you talking
By the barn door
You agreed to go with him
To a church upon the moor
You planned to leave me
You'd be mine no more
  
Two years I loved you
Two years you were mine
I swore I'd love you
Until the end of time
But now you've found a new love
You crossed the line
Oh what have I done
I'll hang for my crime
  
You went walking up on Bodmin
An early start that day
Never said where you were going
But I could walk with you some of the way
Well you never reached that chapel
You never got away
For by the stream I killed you
And there I hoped you'd stay
  
On my return I told the others
New work you had found
They did not believe me
And with your absence I was bound
Oh, curse you Charlotte Dymond
Where you lay on the ground
For along with my boot prints
Your body was found
  
I tried to hide it
Tried to save my own skin
But the Mistress turned against me
With all her kith and kin
I know that I must suffer
For this dreadful sin
Now the gallows await me
Hell's gate says welcome in.
  
Lyric: Charlotte Carrivick (2011), based on traditional sources including the twenty-three four-line verses of Charles Causley's 'The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond'.  Fiddle and backing vocals: Laura Carrivick.
Matthew Weekes was convicted of the murder of Charlotte Dymond and was sentenced to death by hanging. This took place in Plymouth.

High Level - Music from the past.

This is one album that I have wanted to find for at least two decades and finally I have done so. First released by Trailer records as LER 2030 in 1971 it has, as far as I can tell never had a full re-release on vinyl, cassette or CD and neither can I find a legal download. I might have missed something but now it doesn't matter any longer...

For much the same cost as a current vinyl release I have it now, an original in excellent condition. It is not absolutely mint and certainly not unplayed but that is a good thing as I fully intend to play it - indeed I already have - and I'm disappointed neither by the quality of my purchase nor (and I hardly expected this to be so) the quality of the content or its recording.
  
I'm still undecided about my favourite tracks on it: It is all of them currently.  The High Level Ranters was the first band I ever saw live at a real gig and it clearly made an impression on me. This about 35 years ago - and it was certainly after 'Ranting Lads' was released by Topic Records in 1976 as 12TS297. As it so happens I mentioned that album here three years ago tomorrow!
That this recording, let alone much of the original and traditional music, was recorded forty years ago has become relevant again. Good music sleeps but it never dies.

Looking at things in another way...

This follows on from my musings about Latitude 2012 that I posted yesterday. I have to say that the music line-up as currently announced looks pretty strong when compared in some ways to the last couple of years and that does answer one of my criticisms of 2011 in particular. There are plenty of acts new to me at the top end of the bill - Bon Iver and Janelle Monáe being two that quickly come to mind- that I'd like to see and plenty of others that I have seen before but would be delighted to see again - Bat For Lashes, Chairlift, Laura Marling and Soko being four that I have seen at Latitude before that readily come to mind. In addition there are a whole lot of new/less well know acts that are on my radar and this number should grow as more are announced.
This is the point at which I will add my next caveat: in the last few years the 'Lake Stage', formerly 'BBC Radio 1 Introducing' (by Huw Stephens) has been decidedly a hit and miss affair - good but often woefully underused. I have noticed no specific mention of it in the current programme this year. The Sunset Stage has kept up a much better reputation in my view but it is the relative lack of attention to the smaller, more intimate venues that has bought about some of my ambivalence of late.
It is also a two-edged sword because many of the acts already announced, and who are likely to perform on these stages, are already announced for other festivals including, vide supra, NDH 2012 and EOTR 2012. The first artist announcements for Truck Festival 2012, which has reverted to being a two-day festival, are imminent. If the newer or merely less mainstream is your priority, as in many ways it is mine, then that is surely a consideration too. That said, however, having seen Anna Calvi live on the main (Obelisk) stage at Latitude 2011 I can't wait to see her live at EOTR - for which she is confirmed.
The third aspect, and as far as I'm concerned it is no fault of Latitude per se, it takes me two days off work and a considerable cost just to get there and to get back.
I could probably do any two of Truck, Priddy Folk Festival or Shrewsbury Folk Festival (which keeps being recommended to me) for the same cost; travel, food and beer/cider included!  On the other hand I could just do any one of them and have £120 to spend on new recorded music - and that could even include quite a lot of vinyl.

It is Record Store Day soon --- 21 April 2012. Does anyone fancy getting as much, and as truly varied, vinyl and other goodies together as we can muster in an attempt to woo back those lost to real music - both recorded and live?  More important even than that, to educate the generation that has never really known it at all.

Do I stay? Or do I go? - Latitude Festival 2012

It's decision time folks... I've been to the last five, but whether I go to Latitude 2012 is largely down to you this time. I had a few issues with Latitude 2011 and the weather wasn't really one of them although it was an inconvenience to all.  What do you think about the line up (as already announced) below? Please note that I go almost only for the music.

If I stay (much nearer home) I still have the option to go to Priddy Folk Festival, or indeed the revived Truck Festival instead. If not those then plenty of other opportunities are available and I'm already going to 'No Direction Home 2012' (its first offering at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire) and 'End Of The Road 2012' so I'm hardly going to be feeling left out. In fact the line up announced for these, and it is far from complete, is pretty amazing from my personal perspective and is something about which I shall comment in more detail very soon.

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...

Love, loathe, or never even thought about it?

This is just one of the lessons I learned the weekend before last. Those who have opinions have definite ones, many other people are ambivalent to the extent that the concept of folk music means almost nothing at all. It is not for everyone, I know almost nothing at all about classical music although I should. I could find so much to listen to so easily but still I don't. That's just me.
On the subject of folk, which of course I like a great deal, this is a pretty distinct compilation played and sung largely in the contemporary idiom. 

It is also a totally free, and legal, 11-track, 320 mp3 download.

You might not even regard it as folk music at all... and if that is so then that doesn't bother me one bit. If you like it for what it is then that is actually the only thing that matters.  This is the track list:

1. Laura Boyle - Arms Of The Angels
2. Dave Gerard and the Watchmen - Stables
3. Jessie Moncrieff - Georgie
4. Andrew Butler - Love Is A Record
5. Camille Delean - Rivers
6. O. Chapman feat. Faith Barker - Morning Song
7. Lucy Cait - Brother
8. Worry Dolls - Polaroids
9. Woodford Green - What The Doctor Said
10. Josienne Clarke - Forever And More
11. Salwa Azar - White Horse

And, as I was exploring, I thought I might as well also add some artist links (not included in the download).  I certainly haven't had time to explore them in detail yet, but here they are anyway, and a lot of it looks well worth further investigation. 

Live music, again... The Pains of Living Life in Frome.

Just joking of course, and with apologies to Brooklyn's 'The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart'.
This post comes from Friday evening - Acoustic Plus, an almost monthly event at The Cheese and Grain. This one, the first of 2012, provided a particularly packed programme - and still all for £5 - starting with vocals, guitar and blues piano courtesy of Sara Coffield and Pete Gage.

Next to play - just five songs, three of them from her recent EP, and two newer still - was Beth Monk. She was clearly very nervous introducing both herself and the songs but once performing she owned them. While she is not the same, and you might even consider the comparison strange, the first thing this made me think of is Kate Nash in the very early days - if you are lucky enough to own the MoshiMoshi 7" singles then perhaps you can see where I am coming from; the lyrical narrative song-writing is not however derivative or, worse still, generic.

Next up, complete with the rarely-seen sousaphone, and joined by Nick on trombone...

... this is the totally instrumental 'Honk Monster'.
  

The next artist was one that I have seen live at Acoustic+ before. Daisy Chapman  is now accompanied by a cellist and it makes a lot of sense.

The clutter that came between them was an unfortunate result of turning five sets around in short order but didn't spoil the music, at least in my opinion, one little bit.

Last but not least was Joe Mulcrone, formerly of Bath but now relocated to Brighton if I remember correctly.
So what is it like to live in Frome?  To those just asking, I'm just saying.

No rest for the insatiable - Acoustic Moon

I've just got home from the March edition of Acoustic Moon and a gem of an evening it was too. As the title of the post suggests I could have been suffering from a surfeit of acoustic live music this week... Not a bit of it as it turned out; three very good solo guitarists but each very different in style.
One mistake on my part means that there are no pictures of Harry, who was opening the evening, as when I went to reach for my camera from its pouch on my belt I realised that it was still in the car! Rather than miss her first ever set as a solo artist, and also playing six-string rather than bass, I missed the photos for the music. It was a set very well worth hearing - excellent original songs and a truly inspired choice of a 'cover' too.
Next to play was Dirk Landish, who I have mentioned before, with his distinctly American tinged songs.

  

Headlining, and back by popular request, was the artist who also performed the same duty at the very first Acoustic Moon almost exactly six months ago. Emily Baker returned with some rather lovely new songs yet-to-be-recorded and, of course, favourites from the album 'House Of Cards' as well as the 'Foundations EP' that preceded it.

Here she is doing exactly that with the new song 'Northern Lights'.

Random Thought on Music

Nothing remotely to do with folk really...
Just heard 'Comeback Kid' by Sleigh Bells, from second album 'Reign of Terror'. I like it but I can't help thinking that some awful (folk tale) fâte has befallen Alexis Krauss and, while she may appear the same, she is now Charlotte Hatherley in disguise.  Funny thing music...

Live and local - Frome Folk Festival 2012

This is going to be a 'work in progress', quite likely over the next fortnight or more. I once (in 1990 to be precise) swore blind that "I would never write a 'book' again". Some sixteen years later blogging had come along and I fell into the trap;  the rest is the history of what happened thereafter.
This weekend's little place in the history of me goes to the first ever Frome Folk Festival.  The first thing I'm going to say is a huge thank-you to all the people that made it happen - from concept and organisation to the management of all aspects over the weekend and the artists who were willing to subscribe to a start-up. Yes, there were the inevitable niggles of almost any kind you can imagine, but that happens at any festival every time. Everyone is quite entitled to their own perspective but one of my blog philosophies is to concentrate on what I like (it's written down in one of the early posts) and I don't see any reason to change it now.
  
A few of my pictures are in the side-bar already (and I can't wait to see those from the pros!) but here is another one:

 Miranda Sykes, Rex Preston and Damian O'Kane.

Cheese and Grain, Frome Folk Festival, Sunday 19 February 2012.

She recently received a '2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award' for this song.

Bella Hardy, 'The Herring Girl', Westway Cinema, Frome Folk Festival.

My First Festival of 2012

This is going to be interesting in, I rather suspect, many ways. It is a new festival for me, indeed new for everyone, as it is the first Frome Folk Festival. It is going to be some weekend...
One aspect (apart from indoor camping, well I will be kinda as I live in Frome anyway) of FFF1 that I'm largely going to be ignoring is the promised 'market' of stalls offering such things at Tarot Reading, aromatherapy and crystal healing (whatever that is - and please don't even try me about the psuedo-science). That is possibly just a little too Glastonbury, even for Frome, but it is a certain hazard within the broad church of 'folk music' so I'll quite happily just let them be. 
Aromatherapy I could countenance - at least in so far as the allure of the conveniently located fish & chip shop in King Street is concerned - and the café in the Cheese and Grain does do rather tempting cooked breakfasts, which up to now I've always resisted.  If it involves any preparation whatsoever on my part then I won't be eating it.  In that sense I have decided it will be just like any other festival - I'm "on holiday" this weekend and looking forward to it all.
  
Tickets for Frome Folk Festival 2013 (FFF2) are now on sale...

Confusion is just what once you thought you knew.

You will probably know the electro-dominated single 'Somebody That I Used To Know' [but to be fair the album is not all like this, far from it indeed] currently doing the rounds with Australian-Belgian Gotye at the helm and featuring female guest vocals by New Zealand singer Kimbra (and probably better known as a guitarist). I like it but it is not the same as 'Someone You Used To Know' and I like this even more, which is why I'm mentioning it here.
The confusion mentioned in the post title will, along with my liking for acoustic music, hopefully become clearer here:

'Someone You Used To Know' is a totally different song, and an original, by singer-songwriter Zee Avi. If you think that Australia has a surprising musical influence you are right. Gotye is Australian but Zee Avi is not - she is from Sarawak, Borneo - and while 'Someone You Used To Know' is not actually on her latest album, 'Ghostbird', it is well worth a listen and so is the album.

New Music 2012 - Part 12 - "Oh, internet" - A love song

Not much could amuse me more than reposting this without further comment.

Later:  It is a long time since I've added lyrics to a post, so here they are:
  

OOOH INTERNET 
OOOH INTERNET 
  
this constant refresh well they say it's the death of us, baby 
but I like what you do and the way that you change on the daily 
when I walk down the street only strangers I meet 
but I can shake loneliness in just a tweet
  
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
  
oh internet 
if you were a pokémon I'd choose you 
  
oh internet 
keep me on your feed 
I synch to you pretty much constantly 
  
OOOH INTERNET 
OOOH INTERNET 
  
every now and then I go and check on the mail 
cause when there are physical letters consistency fails 
oh these bills everyday, 
lest they be autopay 
are easy to ignore 
....anyway
  
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
  
OOO INTERNET 
    
oh internet 
you're the only love that's true 
    
oh internet 
i'd make out with your face 
later tonight let's meet in cyberspace 
      
oh but I can't get by unless there's wifi 
is this a drug that I need 
there is no other way 
I am at home all day 
so that my torrents can seed 
you just don't get it 
cause you're not on reddit 
and if you want me to go out 
just make sure that there's 
     
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
     
OOH INTERNET 
   
oh internet 
boo boo be boo boo-boop 
   
OOH INTERNET 
   
oh internet 
I wrote you this song 
and if you like it then you all can sing along.
   

Enjoy. Music is easy to take much too seriously and yet the themes it carries often very easy to dismiss. This is presented tongue-in-cheek and that is certainly no bad thing.   The imagined destructive power of new technology has long been over-estimated and its benefits under-sold. Neither is the way in which it starts reactionary.

New Music 2012 - Part 11 - Rebecca Cant

This is her new song 'Field' performed live at 'Songs From The Shed' this week. To  check out more then visit the above, this was their 171st session, and also Rececca Cant on Facebook and Myspace.

  It is also my first attempt to embed audio/video in 'Thoughts On Music'.

New Music 2012 - Part 10 - Trailer Trash Tracys

Just as a starter, what an awesome band name. It tells of something and nothing in equal measure - leaving you to contemplate the beauty that it promises in complete isolation.

It could be all-out metal, for the band name would suit that, but in fact it isn't. It is actually so 2012 that it hurts in the very best way imaginable. I'm wary of saying what I think is comparable, or indeed influential, except to say this.
I like it. You know what I like in music. The album 'Ester' has it all. It is available on vinyl (Double Six Records) and how could you not want that album artwork on 12"?
When it comes to individual tracks that is just something that will have to wait for now. It is too much to take in one go.
  
Note added February 21, 2012:
Trailer Trash Tracys was today confirmed to be appearing at End Of The Road 2012. 

Born To Die - why the fuss actually matters.

The best thing about Lana Del Rey and the album 'Born To Die' is that she has finally got many more people to bury their fears concerning on-line comment and share what they really feel about it. That is good work in anyone's book.

I don't actually care about the detail of what they feel or say, because everybody is entitled to their own opinion on a whole host of issues concerning this release... it is this virtual-audience participation that matters more than anything else. This is what music is supposed to do.
I'm not sitting on the fence as concerns the album: I like it a great deal and, some admission, I admire the decision of (major label, Universal) Polydor to take a gamble on the somewhat controversial. Whether it will stand the test of time as an album in its own right is anyone's guess. Some that don't, at least in their time and place, are later realized to have defined a moment.  Maybe it will, maybe it won't...  but that is never a reason not to try.  

History is nothing but all of tomorrow's yesterdays and much of it happens accidentally. Should she choose to quit the major-label hotchpotch, or should Interscope decide to let her go, I can imagine several truly independent labels that might be willing to take her on and probably be quite amenable to the way she wants to portray herself through her music. That is when things might become really very interesting indeed.

New Music 2012 - Part 9 - The Graphite Set

It is something of a return to Thoughts on Festivals 2011 but for a good reason I believe. This band, a rarity in featuring a trumpet player as a key member, is here seen playing an opening set on the Tipi Stage at End Of The Road 2011 (EOTR 2011).

They were, back then, known as 'Lily and The Hackabouts' and they were very good.  A recent name change has seen them become 'The Graphite Set'. The songs are dependably good - the most recent ones particularly so.  Check out Genova, Chelsea Boots and (most recently revealed) Golden Ship.
Influences? Indie and arty, yes, but never to excess. I could write a list, but not one that would be a criticism of what they do, therefore I won't waste my time doing it. 
And they are very good live too, they gig regularly in North London in particular, but deserve a wider audience.
The Graphite Set is a band to watch in 2012 - and a priority to go-see live.

New Music 2012 - Part 8 - Anxiety, Ladyhawke

Well I just had to mention 'Anxiety', the very welcome follow up to her self-titled début album from 2008; not simply because I heard the first stuff from it today and I think it sounds good but also because I saw her live at Latitude 2009 and that was very good indeed.

It is currently slated for release in the UK (Island/Universal) on March 19, 2012.
More to follow including, with any luck, some UK festival dates.
  

I could, and intend to, add quite a few more acts that have that same potential and given enough on one festival bill I could still be tempted to venture out to another. Anxiety is also very much a part of life for festival organizers just at the moment:

There is no shortage of worthy acts and artists seeking bookings, far from it indeed but that is a double-edged sword.  Selling festival tickets in 2012 is going to be tough, there is no doubt about that and the 2012 Olympiad is not going to help as much as it hinders. Booking the acts of the moment will be more important than ever but that will only come at a cost - one many festivals can barely afford, let alone risk and that they are extremely unlikely to be able to pass this on in ticket prices, 'up-front costs', or indeed 'on-site costs' such as catering (the latter would surely come back to haunt them in 2013).
If, and it is a big if, the general economic situation were to show real signs of even a modest revival, particularly towards the end of 2012, then 2013 (including the return of Glastonbury that is absent in 2012) might actually turn out to be tougher still.

The focus will be firmly on festivals that provide quality in all aspects;  great entertainment, good facilities, and also value for money. There may be some disappointments, some festivals that vanish, but I think that the sector will rebound from this and quite possibly in ruder health.

  

Note added March 30, 2012:

The current, revised date for the release of 'Anxiety' in the UK is May 28, 2012.

New Music 2012 - Part 7 - No Direction Home

No, nothing to do with One Direction at all, this is a new festival. No Direction Home comes with an impeccable pedigree and the tickets are available now. If you have ever wondered about End Of The Road Festival but thought that North Dorset is just a little too far to travel then this is for you. Same team, same ethos (and even the Somerset Cider Bus for us wurzels gone Midland!). The location is Welbeck Abbey and the dates 8-10 June 2012.

End Of The Road 2012 returns, of course, to Larmer Tree Gardens in North Dorset, for a seventh gig on 31 August - 2 September 2012 but it would be unwise to wait until June to buy your ticket for this.
Some acts have been confirmed for both the above-mentioned (see links for details) and I'm sure to comment before long.

New Music 2012 - Things to look forward to...

I've got a list, several in fact. I have always had lists in so far as I can remember. The question that matters is not so much the items on them but their very existence and what I choose to do with them.
I have been inspired to mention this facet of my life by the following blog, which I highly recommend:
listologies.blogspot.com
It is, almost by definition, in a list all of its own. For some reason I currently can't add to my side-bar 'link list' but these things happen. I can, if you are reading this, still update and add posts.  I'm wondering if I've broken it in some way or that, by accumulation it has simply become a list-too-long (it saves the no-longer displayed entries). If it disappears for a short while then fear not. I'm not interested in its long-invisible content and I am pretty sure that you are not either as it is supposed to be my recent listening list.  To that general end, and if it is not otherwise working normally by some currently unspecified time tomorrow, I shall abolish the existing one and attempt to start a new one.
*** the listening list in the side-bar is operational again, starting from scratch with an artist from Bristol who has just this afternoon come to my attention - Rebecca Cant.***

The death of music (is actually a myth).

The good news is that after the pre-Christmas hiatus, which seems to have become less prominent and lengthy over the five or six years that I have been taking more careful note, is ending and with a vengeance. I could suggest several reasons, all rather more significant than my paying attention, for this. It led me to look at some of the posts that I had written over the last two years in particular and, to be honest, I'm quite pleased with what I chose to include and why.  One strange thing that has occurred to me is that sometimes a perceived lack of interest, at others quite the opposite, makes me want to write something and I'm not really sure why that might be.
[Eeek!!!...  this is Radio 1 at 19:54 on a Monday evening and this is new trip-hop with a dub-step edge  - but it is still all ship-shape and Bristol fashion. I don't recognize it - and it might very well actually be Scandinavian, which says a lot about several trends.]
On the other hand never bet against Canada. Kathleen Edwards' - Voyageur LP is released in the UK this coming Monday - I'm now (21:24) listening to it, and quite legally so, while writing this.
Therein lies a conundrum - some would say that the last decade has seen the death of new music - what with the decline of, and therefore ever more risk-averse, major labels - but the majors have vested interests and therefore don't want [the music-buying public] to know the whole extent and context of the story.
I'm not joking here and this is just a start: If I wanted to find three or four hours of worthwhile new music (new to me or just plain new) to listen to each week - totally legally and free - that would actually be no problem at all, even given my sundry likes and dislikes, and all that is without really trying.  I probably already do so and piracy is not involved in any way. I have no problem with paying the going rate for new music and if that is primarily channelled via independent artists, labels and music stores then that is absolutely fine by me and a goal that is becoming ever more realistic.
Then again there is the balance to be found with time listening to my existing collection and not least because many of these serve as reference and comparisons to all the new things.

Just the silly season... but more seriously.

I didn't intend to add anything until Friday but something, and in this case people who came here searching, was to pique my curiosity. I've been looking through the photos that I have taken at festivals over the last few years - and I'm still open to suggestions for ones I need to go to, preferably in late June, July or early August 2012.
I'm going to state some of my recent opinions here but please feel free to disagree. Weather aside (of course it didn't help but it is beyond anyone's control) I was faintly underwhelmed by Latitude 2011. I have always gone there for the music and, in 2011, I think that the emphasis had moved too far away from that. There was much good music, no doubt about it, but not the same attention to detail. The Lake Stage is a good indicator: in 2008 it was amazing, in 2009 mostly unused, while in 2010 it was stunning again but in 2011 little thought had apparently been put in to it. Some of the acts were good, if you could find out when they were on.
The other music stages were pretty good but, as the competition in both UK and abroad improves, things are going to get tougher still. Micheal Eavis has hinted at this and, surely, he is one with the least to worry about. I can see his line of thought however; Coachella 2012 is to be a 2 x three-day festival over successive weekends at the same location and with the same acts at both. Imagine this: you go to both and, unless you chose to do so, see nothing twice. And that is not to mention that the Coachella 2012 line-up is to die for!
UK festivals might have to learn from this and fast - while there is nothing that we can do about the weather (and we are not alone as the extreme horror of Pukklepop 2011 and Indiana State Fair 2011, both caused by extreme weather that could not have reasonably been predicted showed) except to take better steps to mitigate at least the reasonably foreseeable downsides of it withoute stifling the whole scene. Everything is dangerous - its just a matter of degree.
  
I'm not wishing to sound too serious here, indeed I think that being over serious (about the content) is actually part of the problem.  
This was the Obelisk Stage at Latitude 2007 and not half as silly as the performance became... unforgettable for all the right reasons, just as festivals should be.

CSS Roxxx!

Pulling the trick off, year after year, has often eluded both bands and festivals.