2010 in Music: Thoughts of a Willing Victim

Now it is December I think it is no longer premature to publish my own versions of 'Best of 2010 in Music' lists.  This post is not one of them but that is not to say that I have not been thinking about them for a long while now!  I plan to roll the project out between now (Wednesday evening) and the end of the coming weekend and I might well add content to some of the posts (and particularly links within them) after first posting them so please bear with me if a post seems a little threadbare when you first see it.
On the other hand I have made the decision to launch with the list of albums this time around by I may revert to my 2008 format of doing so in two sections. I am as yet still undecided but there are two reasons in favour of this.

• About ten days ago and out of the blue, as the result of a comment on their part about a certain album that I mentioned was one of my favourites, a stranger asked me what my others might be. This was a face-to-face chat, in a real record store, so I had to decide on the hoof.  I surprised myself, and also my interlocutor, with the result.  I can't remember exactly how many I reeled off, another eight or so, but I can pretty much remember what they were as I wrote most of them down when I got home.  This was a far better outcome than trying to self-consciously compare each contender with every other and generally over-think the whole process. It makes sense too, as music is very much a subconscious thing: It is sometimes immediate, while sometimes things take time to grow on me, but this encounter made me realise just which albums inveigled me in 2010.
• The second reason became obvious at an early stage of my consideration. My choices are influenced by the music and artists that I have heard live, whether in 2010 or not, like never before.  That is, in part, just a reflection of the fact that I have now heard so much more live music than I had when I wrote my first such list in 2007. 

I will continue with the policy of listing items in any list alphabetically. I can't rank them as that would change daily depending on my mood. I can change my mind for other reasons too...  This post was, until just now, going to have a rather prosaic title:

Thoughts on 2010 - in lists, albums, live, songs, singles, &c.
  
The one it now has is a more honest and accurate reflection of the way I feel about music.

Thoughts on vertical integration...

This is something of a service announcement, I'm afraid, but it will be followed by some more real thoughts.  For some months now I have been considering how I might improve 'Thoughts on Music' within the constraints of my resources, both financial and temporal. I have some ideas of my own already but all realistic suggestions are always welcome. I must add one proviso, however; at this stage I am not planning to add downloads to the blog.

Vertical integration  - the interaction and accessibility across the various modes and platforms of social networking -  is certainly something that has crossed my mind and it is one aspect that I would like to improve. It is early days, and the time to implement and monitor it is still something of a limiting factor; furthermore it is going to take considerable effort and a steep leaning curve to make it work seamlessly. There will without doubt be some trials, tribulations and false starts along the way, and this is on a not-for-profit and just-for-satisfaction basis, but I think it worth a try and the first real steps were taken this evening.
 
You can now use Twitter to comment on blog posts: @ThoughtsOnMusic or see my tweets for that matter.
Let me know how it works, or doesn't, for you.

Live and Local - 3 Corners

This is part of the ongoing Acoustic+ that takes place most months here in Frome. The most recent incarnation took place this Friday just gone and the stand-out act for me was '3 Corners'.

It is not often that one sees an eight-piece, including a brass trio, live on stage.
  

And yes it was good, very good indeed.  For this reason it is important that local arts, crucially that infrastructure needed to sustain it, is not abolished. It is a soft option - Somerset County Council has suggested that it might cut its funding for arts by 100% in 2011-12. The money saved is relatively small in the great scheme of things but vital to the well-being of, and regeneration in, the local community; the involvement of which is something the Government has said is central to the new way of thinking. 

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 4 - Smart Flesh - The Low Anthem

Well I knew it was well in hand by the time I returned from EOTR 2010 almost exactly two months ago.  It seems such a long time but now what I said then is finally to become reality.

Recorded in disused industrial premises in Providence, RI it is to be entitled Smart Flesh. The current release date on Nonesuch/Bella Union (in the UK) is February 21, 2011 and I for one can't wait. They played some of the putative tracks from it live at EOTR 2010 and, oh my God Charlie Darwin, they were so good once again!


Other recent and relevant posts:
The Pirates of Providence...Low Anthem @ EOTR 2010
While I'm on this general subject their cover of 'Ghost Woman Blues' (George Carter, 1929) is something of an ear-opener.

Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch
Part 2  ---  Yuck

Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit
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

Live in 2010 --- Bella Hardy

She is on tour across the UK, starting towards the end 0f this month.
Live in Bath (Theatre Royal, Ustinov Studio) Friday 3 December 2010.

See here for details about the tour dates and more.

New Music 2011 - Part 3 - The Duke Spirit, Laura Marling, &c.

The Duke Spirit is one band my love of which pre-dates my days as a blogger.  They are a five-piece and are well advanced in the recording of their third album.  They are also awesome live and this is just how rock should be...

The Duke Spirit live in New York last weekend.

Too much reliance on the, albeit marvellous, digital age can have its downside! Still there is solace to be found in things thoroughly analogue...  FM radio and a pile of vinyl recordings.


While what I am to mention next actually belongs in 2010 its inclusion in prospects for 2011 is also apposite. Since she appeared on the new folk scene in 2006, most notably then as part of Noah And The Whale, barely a few months have gone by without her releasing something to delight us.

She recently apologised for the delay in the release of her third studio album (now due "sooner rather than later" in 2011) but instead consider it in this light. In these days a gap of  at least two years between studio albums is now quite normal due in large part to the more profitable touring commitments that might follow: her second album 'I Speak Because I Can' was however released on May 3, 2010.  That is not to say that she has stinted on the latter front and for those lucky enough to be attending the Crunch Festival, Hay on Wye next weekend you are in for a treat not least because she is headlining the music aspect on Friday evening:  There are still some tickets left if you have a gap in your diary.

I saw Laura Marling live at Latitude 2010 and the performance was flawless even in the rather wide expanse of the Obelisk stage. As well as the obvious highlights of her own song writing there is the ease with which she interprets and incorporates cover versions into the proceedings. If you can find a recording of her recent performance at Cecil Sharp House (for BBC Radio 1), with Mumford & Sons and covering Dolly Parton's 'Jolene', then I suggest you do so.  Her latest release, vinyl 7" (TMR044) physically, but also available to stream from Spotify, is another pair of covered songs recorded at Third Man Records' studio in Nashville by, label founder and analogue addict, Jack White.

The a-side (it is so good to write that and really mean it) is 'Blues Run The Game', written and recorded by Jackson C. Frank (1965) and from the album of the same name, which was to be the only one from someone stalked by misfortune from a young age.

The b-side is more a reflection on the misfortunes of others by one whose career has lasted decades, is very much ongoing, and in the current musical climate increasingly influential.  'Needle and The Damage Done' saw Neil Young tackling such territory and it was originally released on the 1972 studio album 'Harvest' but it was performed live somewhat before that and I have an admission to make. 'Harvest' was something of a joke in the days when I first started to appreciate vinyl and it always seemed to be in the 'bargain bin' - "Any 3 for £1" - and guess what?  I'm listening to 'Harvest', quarter of a century later and on original vinyl, while writing. I paid over the odds for it too - it cost me £0.50 in December 1986 - and I know that because I made a note of it inside the sleeve!

On the face of it nothing - except for my mysterious taste in music - connects the worlds of Duke Spirit and Laura Marling but in that you are perhaps misguided. In 2006 The Duke Spirit released a 7" Covered In Love comprising two tracks by artists who were then recently deceased.


 2011-related posts about Laura Marling's music:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2011/01/few-bits-and-pieces.html


Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  --- Esben and The Witch
Part 2  --- Yuck
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

Jill Jackson - Lullaby - lyric

Thank you to whosoever asked about this just a few minutes ago.
 
I'm on the case already because I've been intending to post the lyrics from the rest of the songs from this album for absolutely ages. I hope to have those for 'Lullaby' by the end of tomorrow evening.

Lullaby
There was a boy and girl
Living in a shadowed world
The girl has gotten sick
Nothing they can do for it
She slowly passed away
On a cold November day

Held on to her hand
Felt like half a man
He sang her a lullaby
I'll meet you on the other side
 
This is not our last goodbye
'Cause you are my life
For him it was too much
To try pick the pieces up
Found it hard to beat
They found him down on his knees
 

His house was not a home
He could not live alone
Life was just too hard
He died of a broken heart
 
And he sang her a lullaby
When they met on the other side
Said we'll never say another goodbye
'Cause love has no time
For we are inseparable
What we have is beautiful
 
And nothing else mattered before
Just you and I - promise you
Promise me If I go before you
You would know I'd sing you a lullaby
 
I'd meet you on the other side
We'd never say another goodbye
'Cause you are my life
We are inseparable
What we have is beautiful
Nothing else matters at all.

Just you and I.


I hope that I haven't made too many mistakes. This is one album I suspect that I will never tire of. I still listen to it frequently, although I would baulk at paying the Amazon.co.uk price of £44.99 for a CD version. The d/l price is more reasonable; then again so is a CD from the lovely folks at www.cdbaby.com and if you like this then they could point you in the direction of plenty more artists that might be of interest.
 
Other Jill Jackson lyrics:
Fragile Heart
Rain On My Window
 
Now that I have done the last three of the ten album tracks, of which Lullaby has proven the most taxing, I'm inspired to do the other seven. When I have I shall perhaps reward myself by buying the 2010 Painted Faces EP.  She is on tour in the UK in the next few weeks but many of the gigs in Scotland are already sold out...

Jill Jackson live in 2010.

 A new album in 2011 too; that deserves a blog-post all of its own as soon as I know more.  On the Painted Faces EP (CD only) she swaps her acoustic guitar (above) for ukelele. Three are new tracks while the other two are stripped back versions of older ones and I'm not going to tell you which. Painted Faces is available from CDbaby for $10 plus the shipping charges for the appropriate location.

Britpop revived: Live with little comment.

• Blur reunited - check.
• Suede reunited - check.

Today Pulp announced their return...  at least for one day in Hyde Park in July 2011.

Jarvis Cocker, comedian and musician, live at Latitude 2007 and quite unforgettable.

Note added November 18, 2010:

We now have confirmation the the above mentioned reunion of all six original members of Pulp is not a one-off: the band is confirmed for Isle of Wight Festival 2011 the tickets for which have now gone on sale.

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

Apologies...

Loads to write but ISP issues currently make that almost impossible.  I hope to fill the gaps very soon...


Note added November 9, 2010:
Well at least the ISP seems to be back behaving once again. Watch this space.

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.

New Music 2011 - Part 1 - Violet Cries

Hot off the press is the début album by Esben and The Witch: Violet Cries will be released in the UK/EU on January 31, 2011 and in the US/rest of the world on February 8, 2011.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Argyria
2. Marching Song
3. Marine Fields Glow
4. Light Streams
5. Hexagons iv
6. Chorea
7. Warpath
8. Battlecry/Mimicry
9. Eumenides
10. Swan

The most recent update is this (November, 18): Matador Records have now confirmed that the album will be released on vinyl (as well as CD and d/l) and just imagine how good will that look.

On the evening of the day of the UK release they are already confirmed as playing The Louisiana, Bristol. This is the first of eight dates around the UK which are then followed by eight in western parts of Europe, winding up at Point Ephemere, Paris on 21, February.

Sign up to the mailing list at http://www.esbenandthewitch.co.uk/ and you can download the mp3 of 'Warpath' for nothing. It is Halloween this coming weekend and things are getting better already...
In that regard I think that I failed to mention that the sole track on the second side of recent 12" EP 'Marching Song' is spooky and also rather appropriate in these parts of Somerset bordering 'Hardy Country': it doesn't let you get away quickly either for 'Done Because We Are Too Menny' runs to well over eleven minutes of smouldering menace.  Never mind just scaring the kids...

For more about 'Esben and The Witch' see here:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/10/warpaint-marching-songs-new-music-2010.html
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-4-esben-and.html


Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 2  --- Yuck
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?

My day has just been made...

Listening to BBC Radio 1 just now, on a Sunday afternoon after a bit of gardening, Jo Whiley played 'Be My Animal', by Newbury's  The Good Natured and deserves recognition for that:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-5-good-natured.htm

Not gone away; just taking stock of 2010.

Well I intend to write more this weekend but I haven't been idle in the meantime.  I've been trawling through all those mostly useless photos that I have taken during 2010 and also some of those from earlier festivals if and when they are still of relevance.  Sometimes I miss worthwhile ones by mistake and others become more (or less) relevant with the passage of time.
This is a recent one, taken at Latitude 2010, of a band that is of ever increasing prominence and one that is coming towards the end of a month touring the US.  This is Esben and The Witch.  The EP, available now, is Marching Song.

More live pictures to follow soon and, hopefully, also plenty more thoughts on new and/or upcoming music too.  Returning UK artists include several that I have mentioned before, including The Duke Spirit.
If there is one grain of comfort in today's 'Spending Review' it is that the London Crossrail project goes ahead: it has already resulted in the demise of the 'Astoria'.  It was a venue of Great British character - all sticky floors and heritage facilities.  You can decide which was to be found where but to be honest you'll almost certainly be right regardless, and the essence of long-faded grandeur pervaded all parts of it. The last band I saw play there was 'The Duke Spirit' and that was back in May 2005.

New Music 2010 #21 - Youth is the future of music

The reason I started this post is more 'Thoughts On Music' than you might suspect.

At the end of the week just gone Rob Dickins, former head of Warner music UK, suggested one possible solution to the complex problems that have resulted in rampant illegal downloading.  It is a very divisive suggestion, but I don't think that it makes it any less worthy of consideration.  That he presided over the rip-off years, when new CDs were £13+, is a fair criticism indeed: on the other hand the converted can become the most evangelical and also the most successfully so.
The fact of the matter is that, whatever I think in the week that Sir Cliff Richard turned 70, we are not the ones that dictate the future direction of music.  To be quite honest I'm fine about that: I am happy listening and doing some inconsequential reportage. The future is more like this and it belongs to the young.

Amplified Silence - Acoustic+, Frome, 15 October 2010.

Nancy Black, Acoustic+, Frome, 17 September 2010

Everyone is just going to have to become used to it but that is not to say that it will come as a nasty shock.  They may never sign to a major label - for there may no longer even be such things - but there will still be music; of that I'm pretty sure.

Warpaint & Marching Songs - New Music 2010 #20

If the title appears a little bellicose then fear not; all they have in mind is to take your heart and soul by virtue of their music alone. In these shortening days and colder nights, how could you not want that?
This is music for dark nights, warm sustenance and, perchance, much of what follows might well be amongst my listening suggestion for Halloween. I saw Esben and The Witch live on a sunny summer's afternoon in Suffolk and even then the laid-back festival vibe could not detract from the fact that this is essentially slightly menacing music. The band name is taken from a rather dark Danish folk tale... They have been signed to Matador Records since then and the Marching Song EP is their first true label release.

The band is currently mid-way through a month-long tour of the US , including and a quick trip north of the 49th to Vancouver with Cassandra (that is their trusty tour van - 6000 miles and counting), in support of Foals.  The EP is readily available on legal d/l from the usual sources.  There are also 300 12" vinyl copies out there, available from independent stores; if you want one try Rough Trade.


There is a certain irony in that while Esben and The Witch is doing this Warpaint, that hail from Los Angeles, is in the UK doing pretty much the same kind of thing. The distances are far smaller, of course, but the idea behind it is much the same.  This, I think, just goes to show the remarkable synergy that now exists between UK and North American music and long may it continue.
This is the vinyl EP 'Exquite Corpse', although you can also have it in other formats too.

Warpaint is a psych-rock four-piece that has been flicking tantalizing sparks into the wind for a long time now  - any number of line up changes and very few gigs - but it is starting to become clear that this long apprenticeship is about to reap a just reward.
The release of their début album 'The Fool' is imminent - it is expected to be 25 October in the UK - and this too is available on vinyl, CD and d/l.

     If you want an alternative take on Halloween 2010 then please do consider all these as contenders.

Warpaint are in fact signed to Rough Trade Records (in the UK at least) so I expect that there might well be a bonus disc if you buy from Rough Trade (their stores or on-line) once it is released. I can't make any promises but they do however have a solid history in this regard: support independent artists, labels and stores - your music needs you just as much as you need it!

Ain't Nobody - Clare Maguire

It is time to tackle lyrics again and this is one that has proven to be harder than most.  It is also one that I have wanted to do more than most; ever since I saw it performed live in front of a public audience for the very first time almost three months ago.  The usual caveats apply but here goes regardless.


Ain't Nobody
Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Open up your torment
And bury me inside
I can see us changing
Like the seasons over time
The silver old river
Reflections of your love
Tell me in the silence
You'll never come undone.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

The shadows are falling
Tomorrow's closing in
Stay with me till morning
And open up your wings
I can hear your whispers
Calling out my name
Will you promise me that
We'll steal the night again?

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)


Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.


For what I have gotten wrong I am sorry.  On the up-side, I hope at least something is better than nothing!  These lyrics are the best that I can divine from her live performance of it, as recorded in the BBC Maida Vale studios today. It is released as a single on 18 October in the UK.

For more pictures of Clare Maguire, live at Latitude 2010, see here:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-3-clare-maguire.html

The album 'Light After Dark' is released (UK) on February 28, 2011.

Whither next? New Music 2010 - Part 19

After a week away from posting, but certainly not listening or reading, this will likely be a rather hybrid post.  It is in some ways driven by my ongoing infatuation with the music that has made 2010 worthwhile for me. I can and will mention much more of that but, while thinking about it, I have started to think a bit more about what the next twelve months might bring.  These are just very first thoughts and they may quite likely change, and possibly more than once, before I feel that I am willing to comment decisively as the year-end approaches. That said, and however it develops between now and then, the prospect does not depress me at all...
It will, I think, continue to be a very interesting ride and here are a couple of tracks, making the rounds now, that hint at just some of what might be in store.

• James Blake  - 'Limit To Your Love'.   This is in fact a cover version - of a song by Canadian artist Feist who I really rate in any case.  The spare beauty of this interpretation is quite astounding --- not least for the haunting silences.  It is another that I must add to my list of astonishing cover versions, and dangerously risky ones at that, but again it is one that works beautifully.
• Sleigh Bells - continuing the Brooklyn electro-whatever theme of the last few years  - will make an impact with their album 'Treats' (already released) and I expect to see them on the bill at Latitude 2011. Where you get into this really depends on your current perspective, which will also be a theme in 2011 I believe. If you want the rock-influenced, and it is little more than that, then Infinity Guitars, the current single, would be no bad place to start. On the other hand you would never have imagined that they would ever become Sleigh Bells, given the members' utterly disparate previous band history.  On careful listening, and even then perhaps only if you already know, it is just possibly less difficult to comprehend!
• Rock music - well surely, in some or all of its variety, it is due something of a come-back? It might not be on my terms, or yours, but sooner or later it will return.  I'm fascinated by two apparently different bands, both of which however share something derived from Seattle grunge even if it is used in different ways.  In other ways they could hardly appear to have less in common - Dinosaur Pile-up is four lads from Leeds and Los Angeles' Warpaint is an all-female four-piece - but you should never pay much attention to detail such as that...

I suspect that this is not even going to be a fraction of one half-of-it!