Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was

I'm back from a break in posting, but not listening, with more than a few things to share. It is a while now since I've added a "New Music I Want..." post.

In another two months it will be the time for that "Best of..." consideration again but what immediately strikes me is that while most items I want are recent they are very varied. This is to the extent that they need to be divided in to several posts, or at least that is my current assessment and one of them, shock horror, is going to be about new releases by major label artists. Not just that, this is about releases that I actually want!

This, however, is at the other end of the scale altogether...

Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was - #2 in a trilogy of vinyl LPs by Leyland Kirkby.

Like the last (and the next) it is only available on 2 x 12" vinyl each limited to 450 copies worldwide. Cheerful it is not but cheer up: once the vinyl is all done there will be a 3-CD release incorporating all six LPs so the future isn't quite so bad after all and, furthermore, it is curiously uplifting listening.

The Fine Art Of Surfacing.

This is for whoever just asked about it and because, as I mentioned last week, I Don't Like Mondays either.

It is now thirty years old and this is an original - Ensign Records ENROX11 on vinyl.

(click the image to open in a new tab)

Once the hell raiser himself, now long the voice of worldwide compassion, but at least one of his daughters tows-the-party-line. That is so rock-n-roll but, with Peaches as a name, who can blame her? It is, however, still a great album.

Here, as a complete aside, is another picture from Acoustic+ on Friday - live and local:

Ladyraz live at Acoustic+, 25 September 2009.

Recode - Live and Local 2

I've seen plenty of great new and less-than-new acts this summer and they have come from most continents, so perhaps that might result in a sense of overload?
It is still however a very special thing to be able leave home for a venue that is ten minutes away on foot. The music is good, and £4 ($6.50, €4.50) for four bands is a bargain and almost all in my experience are well worth seeing.
Yesterday evening the acts at Acousic+ were all good but one was quite remarkable for the publicity and mobilisation of their fan base, which was obvious from the moment one arrived at the venue, but publicity does not always a good act make!

That for me was Recode but in this case it lived up to the hype. Formed just ten months ago it is not only good musically but also amazingly professional. It was actually (guitarist) James' 21st birthday and what a way to celebrate it!

That is in itself not enough but it also has a definite, tight, clean and complete sound that is certainly not immediately derivative and also great original songs.

Wonderful. Stand-out songs for me are 'Consequence' and thus described "this one is a newbie" 'Today'.

Beacons, Black Ice and crossed-wires

It is autumn here now even though the weather is still remarkably good generally. This evening when driving from work I took the back-route home, which is through some woods, and while there was the faintest drizzle in the air you didn't need that or the slowly changing colours of the leaves to indicate it because you could just smell that it was now autumn. The UK is not a country of great climatic extremes, or indeed climate at all, which is probably why we are obsessed with the random variability of our weather instead.

Now why have I mentioned that you might ask? Well, much music has associations in as much to say it goes better with some seasons or weather or other associations (even if the they actually have to be experienced in foreign climes). If that were not true then surely the attractions of Ibiza would be no more than those of the Isle of Wight. (The latter does, to be fair, however host two major festivals and is thus trying very hard indeed and the sun shone at Bestival 2009, I am told.) I also think that opening a festival is an unenviable task...

It is often like this. There is always an amazing feeling when I come across an album that is show-stopping, which I was quite unacquainted with, but this is it seems even better if it happens live and that is why I waited ten days to order the album. [It arrived today, hence the comment.]

To hear a full set by a band live in such circumstances, and then twice in one day, was something quite new to me and I wondered if the album would then prove a disappointment in some way. Not a bit of it... it is a wonderful album and while much of it has ostensibly weather related themes, predominantly winter ones, they are as much metaphorical as literal.

In fact the album could equally well have been called 'Crossed Wires'. This is the interior artwork on the CD (Bella Union - BELLACD199) but the front cover has a clue to this even though the wires are barely above the snow.

It is very difficult to chose any favourite tracks but Black Ice is an obvious contender.

Black Ice

I took the bus down Bathurst Street and saw where,
all the lonely people meet down there.
I sat on a pile of cigarettes and blew,
icicles with one sharp breath towards you.

There's black ice, no sign.

Temper me and temper this I've tried,
to fit in everything in a small time.
The winter brings a heaviness, this weight,
is a hand over the things I shouldn't say.

There's black ice, no sign.

They are a seven-piece, much given to changing and swapping instruments, so even their festival-opening set on the 'The Big Top Stage' Friday lunchtime was a fairly complicated affair. It was however as nothing when compared to their 'surprise session' appearance at 2am Saturday on the tiny stage in the Tipi Tent, not least because for some of it they were joined by fellow Torontans 'The Acorn'.

That made eleven of them on a tiny stage and it was another blistering performance.

Now try to sort out the out all the wires.

I Don't Like Mondays.

Autumn isn't so bad, even though it is Monday and one that marks the point at which for the next six months it will be dark more than it is light. It is however, with the exception of the six weeks from the start of December to early January a very good time for new music.
I did note, with minor dismay, that Sir Cliff Richard was at #40 in the BBC singles chart yesterday and please don't even consider an attempt at UK Christmas #1 .
That quibble aside, and if I have enough new music, I'm pretty contented. Last Saturday somebody asked me about my favourite albums of 2009 and, while slightly informative, I hinted that it was my hope that at least a quarter of them haven't even been released yet as it is still only September. I am still finding ones that in truth should have been worthy of inclusion in my lists for 2007 and 2008 and the long-list for 2009 is looking like a challenge to come in a couple of months time.
The sheer diversity is perhaps what intrigues me most but then again that is the target I set myself back in 2000. Pop is most certainly still not a dirty word but the fact is that, almost a decade later, not only am I sticking to the original concept it has also evolved into something far beyond what I envisaged and that surprises and pleases me in equal measure.

Three very different 2009 releases - all excellent in their own genre and all on vinyl.

What next?

More musings from EOTR 2009 which, it has to be said, was a very difficult festival to describe and all the better for that. There were so many great sets that I'll probably never mention them all but Alela Diane, on the Garden Stage Saturday afternoon, should be mentioned (it was also an amazing set) just for this alone and if you want the lyric for this song then just ask... It's better known than I ever dared suspect and plenty of us were singing along!

'Matty Groves' live and acoustic.

The song appears, very much like this, on Fairport Convention's 'In Real Time - Live 1987' and yes I have that on vinyl. It was such a surprise and, when the first chords played my first thought was 'surely it is not, it simply can't be' but I was wrong again.

For the lyric to the song, and some discussion, see:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/10/matty-groves-lyric-alela-diane.html

Me Oh My (and the matter of Pet Deaths).

I'll steer away from reminiscences of EOTR 2009 for a moment, in favour of those started at Latitude 2007 and here is why...
One of the artists I saw then was Cate Le Bon and I mentioned that her début album 'Pet Deaths' would soon be out. That was now more than two years ago and it still isn't (although the 10" EP Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg appeared in 2008). That album has, for various reasons, gone the same way as the pets...

It has however been replaced by this one, Me Oh My, which is out soon on Irony Bored Records and if you want a bonus DVD to come along with it then Rough Trade in London is the place to look:
http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=317252

The end of one thing is just the start of another.

This time last week I was in North Dorset at 'End of The Road 2009' and it has taken me rest of the week to really come to terms with what that actually meant to me. Lots of awesome acts, that is for sure, but also rather more than that and so I've already bought a ticket for EOTR 2010.

I've long thought that to be the first act on stage at a festival must be an invidious task and at EOTR 2009 that fell to Toronto-based Ohbijou on the 'Big Top Stage' shortly after mid-day on Friday.

This was my introduction to EOTR and "holey-moley this is just amazing" is merely to quote lead vocalist Casey Mecija at some point mid-set; and it could very easily have gone downhill from there but it didn't, there is no doubt about that.

In fact, in the early hours of Saturday morning, Ohbijou became only the second act I have ever seen perform a full live set twice within 24 hours!
There was no shortage of amazing acts...

At 11:15 pm on Friday night Beth Jeans Houghton conspired to take an absolutely packed 'The Local' stage by storm.
She has received good reviews but this was a truly awesome set. When 'The Horrors' were unavailable due to illness on the Big Top Stage Saturday evening she was game for a bigger venue and, while I didn't catch that performance, she was by all accounts more than equal to filling that stage too.

The one act that defaulted at Latitude 2009 I was able to see at EOTR 2009, on the Tipi Stage, and that was Sweden's 'First Aid Kit'. They were amazing, as I had been led to believe they would be, but I didn't expect them to play even one song with such a surprising pair of instruments.

Autoharp, six-string banjo and a judiciously updated cover of 'Universal Soldier' - written and originally recorded by Toronto's Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1964.

If these had been the only highlights, but they most certainly weren't, it would still have been a pretty good weekend.

End Of The Road 2009 ... and back again.

I went there, now I have returned... so was it what I expected?
Yes and no, because I couldn't actually decide beforehand (and such musings nearly led to me taking the A30 in the wrong direction at Shaftesbury) quite what it would be like. If it were like Latitude scaled down by a factor of five would that be for better or for worse? Beyond that, I had no idea whatsoever and to go to a festival so close to home yet with such gnawing ambivalence, which I felt very much when on my way to Latitude the first time, was a bit of a surprise in itself.
The best way I can sum it up is that it was a little bit like being older and possibly wiser but going to a new school!
Needless to say everything went well, as oft-times it does, and so the picture above is that of my well-thumbed book that is now replete with marginal notes and other sometimes random musings.

What is the general set up?
That is something you might quite reasonably ask so here are a few pictures to set the scene...

A tiny tent and the 'Big Top Stage' on Friday morning.

An hour later... 'Big Top' across the arena.

The main stage, and the only outdoor one of the four, is the 'Garden Stage' and it is quite surprising because it does have a faux-Tudor cottage at one corner...

...but there is more, although I seem to have forgotten the Italianate temple and pagoda.

Folie à deux - another view of the Garden Stage.

I can see why comparisons with Latitude are made and they are valid up to a point. They are however not the least bit the same. If you want the possibility of acts that will be troubling the charts this year then Latitude has the edge but if not or you are looking for something new or simply less mainstream then, while Latitude is good for that too, End Of The Road is ideal. This is only in part because of its smaller size but more a result of the rather particular tastes of those who book the acts.

Moon rising over the Tipi stage at 3am Saturday.

It is a truly wonderful venue regardless of its various shortcomings!

I haven't even mentioned ANY artists yet and please don't even ask me to choose which festival I like the best.

Maybe it is just me but my answer is both of them.

Why music really matters (Part 2).

If I had arranged the timing myself (I didn't, how surprising is that?) it could hardly have been better. Illegal file sharing is, just as the name suggests, illegal as things stand. That much is a given but what should be done about the parlous state of the (major label) music industry? The reasons that it has ended up this way are certainly not subject to any obvious consensus of opinion.
The UK government has suggested a scheme under which, after warnings, persistent illegal sharers would be forcibly cut-off by their ISP. You might think that would be supported by all sectors of the music industry; that is not so and some of them have now chosen to make public a very clear manifesto:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8247376.stm

To sum it up, rather crudely I admit, it states that things have changed and no amount of wishing, or legislation, will be ever be able to turn the clock back and it is a conclusion that is not new. It is also one with which I concur.

It has not been possible to un-invent nuclear weapons but where there is a will a way can be found to limit the consequences and, had that not been the case, the last thing we would be talking about now is the 'major label' music industry. If there were any of us to talk about or do anything at all in the 'nuclear winter' I rather suspect that whatever music we could make would be more important than ever.

Or, to put it in a much more recent perspective, where would we be now if administrations of all flavours world-wide had reacted to the financial catastrophe, that was September 2008, in the way that the 'major labels' did to the impact of the internet and, thus, inevitably, downloading (whether legal or otherwise)?

I hate to think...

Why music really matters...

This time tomorrow evening all requisite bits and pieces will be packed in readiness for Friday morning and three festival days but that somehow seems strange.
I can drive to Latitude now without a road-atlas and when I get there it seems pretty much familiar; now I'm going to a much smaller festival taking place thirty miles away, so no big deal, but a map is something that I will certainly need and in many ways it feels a bit like starting over again even though I know that is totally irrational.
This time it is different however: in 2007 there were several times on the drive to Suffolk when I wondered if, once there, I might just turn back and come straight home again. That is however now extremely unlikely, even the weather looks good, and to be honest I can't wait to see what it is like.

I am in fact in a mood that might best be described as curious in all senses of the word, which is probably good in the circumstances, and everything I have been told or read about it is complimentary.
This brings me to another point which is that I haven't been doing a good job here recently. There is so much that I would like to post but simply never get around to writing and, worse still, much more that I'd like to know but never have the time to read or certainly discover for myself even though I am lucky enough to receive numerous updates from various sources.
Some may wonder why and I have, from time to time without ever doubting my reasons. The exact circumstances are remarkably different but today, thanks to a featured blog courtesy of CYBER PR/Ariel Publicity I realised that perhaps the real reasons to continue are, perhaps, less the desire to be read (as such) and more the wish to participate in a perceived greater whole and for no obvious financial reward - perhaps a surprising outcome in this day and age.

To sum that up here is the interview with Ariel Hyatt and I think it is quite remarkable:

Nicole Rivera of Pop Reviews Now

Pop Reviews Now is a run-of-the-mill music review blog that posts reviews, raves, rants and the occasional music news.

http://popreviewsnow.blogspot.com/

Q: What has to be done in the technological sense to monetize music to a greater degree on the internet?

A: As a blogger, I don't think I actually have the right to answer that question BUT if it were purely my opinion, I'd say make the music available to every single country. Where I live in right now doesn't have any digital music for sale whatsoever and physical albums here not only cost a ton of money, they come very scarcely as well - it's like that for third-world countries. To me, everyone has a right to listen to music that moves him/her regardless of social standing, geographical location or whatever can hinder capitalist companies from reaching them. Making music available to anyone and everyone on the internet will let the artists earn what they need to live and make more music while reaching wider audiences. That, in my humble opinion is what should be done.

Q. Where do you see the next trend in social media? What else can be done in terms of having an online conversation? What is the next "What are you doing?" question?

A: Social media? I'm not very good at predicting trends in networking but Twitter is the big thing right now - they might create a vide-centric Twitter or something. Like you take a short video and upload it but it's just some wild dream I picked out of my head. As a blogger, I'd love the next 'what are you doing?' question to be 'what are you listening to?' but that's highly impossible - not everyone listens to music 24/7 like me and a few friends.

Q. What inspired you to start broadcasting/blogging? It that still your source of motivation?

A: I started blogging for numerous reasons and I realized that I keep on blogging for even more reasons. Blogging for me is all about the writing - I want to be a writer so badly but since I'm still in school, there's nothing I can do about it. Blogging is my sanctuary - when I'm extremely stressed all I do is whip up and post and I feel like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I write about music because it's in my blood. I come from a legendary music family in the Philippines with roots traced to European composers and my father produced albums for the biggest and most influential band of the 90's and 2000's - the Eraserheads. I can play basic instruments and I'm a member of one of the most prestigious countries - music is something I was born to purse but I love it so much that even if I wasn't born with these ties I'd do it anyway.

Music, like writing has the ability to relax me so the minute I put those two together I'm doing something I truly love doing. Over my short time as a blogger, I've realized that I blog to have my opinions and my thoughts voiced out to as many people as possible but I've discovered a deeper reason for why I blog.

I blog to fight for what I believe in. The mainstream music industry has taken away the little respect I have for them by deleting a review of mine with a legal download link given by promotional companies, sanitizing artists, denying me and everyone in my country of music and flat-out disrespecting creativity by doing those but I still blog because it's a way to fight. Blogging is a way for me to show the principles I was raised with and prove to everyone that I'm not someone powerful people can boss around or hurt - I'm a person and I deserve to voice my thoughts in the best way I can.

Q. What are some things bands can do to get your attention to be featured on your broadcast/blog? Do you ever cover a band that you are not particularly fond of musically?

A: To answer the second question, I only feature an artist I don't musically like if I have something to say about him/her or if it fits with the principles I'm trying to get across. Otherwise, if I don't like the artist I don't feature him/her. To me, all bands have to do is show me that they're a few things. I look for creativity, musicality, technical ability and good songs in an artist but before that I listen to see if he/she knows what he/she's doing or if the song is just a repetition of a generic pop hit. After I hear those things I find a song that I personally like. I can't really describe my personal taste well because I listen to whatever I like - I am very fond of beautifully-crafted melodies though.

Q. Will major labels ever be the gatekeepers again, or have they lost all of their power to the internet forever? Can they somehow return to prominence?

A: If they get their acts together, stop being stupid and start respecting the artists they take in then they might be able to return to where they were ten years ago. To me if they're gonna think of returning to prominence they have to take in artists who really are artists and not some random singers they find on the street with absolutely no talent and creativity. They have to learn how to respect music as it is and not force artists to change their art 'just because it won't sell' - that's not right.

Record companies have to develop the ability to be ahead of everyone else - the reason why they lost out to the internet is because they failed to use it to their advantage back it its early days, thinking it wasn't important (my dad was told that by a record company executive here when the internet was just gaining momentum). They have to lose the capitalistic mindset and get some musicians to run the company - the music can function without the industry but the industry can't so they have to learn to RESPECT it. Simple as that, really.

The end of... what exactly?

The end of summer perhaps, the End Of The Road Festival maybe, but nothing is really quite as simple as that.

These are not abandoned, or merely washed-up like the sea-weed.
They are above the tide-line while their owners take some time away from the rat-race.

Music still has something of a hiatus over the summer too although arguably much less of one than it did a decade ago, and the four weeks on the run up to Christmas are still pretty poor, but the three months between them are usually good. It is more appropriately a time to consider the beginning of what comes next. It just goes round and round, albeit with very different durations and influences, but ultimately returns again at least in essence.

Nothing starts and nothing ends and so 'Ellipse', the latest album by Imogen Heap, would be a very good place to pick up the thread.

The future beckons...

We don't know what it holds other than to say that it is pretty certain that it will happen regardless. I am planning on being party to it in 2010 and, this being so, I've just bought a ticket for Latitude 2010 (15 - 18 July 2010). Pre-sale tickets are available at 2009 prices for a limited time only.

I also have no idea whatsoever who the chosen artists might be (but I can already think of a few that might be on my wish list) and since it has not disappointed for three years in a row I see no reason to expect that it will do so next year. In fact not knowing, until relatively late in the run-up, is just a part of the anticipation and excitement!

An oasis does not a desert define.

It is, I suppose, the music headline of the summer festival season - Noel walks out on Liam and the rest of the band mid-tour, saying that it is all over for Oasis forever. How very rock-n-roll it all is, just like it was in the 1970s and 1980s. If there is one thing that surprises me it is that it hadn't happened once or twice already, another is that it might actually be good news.
The fact is that, while it is obvious that both parties are not going to live on a poverty-fuelled diet of baked beans and chips from here on (unless out of choice), both could be successful, particularly without the weight that they seem to bring to bear on each other, and musical variety could well be the winner for the listener.
The cynics, myself included, have considered the thought that it is merely à propos a future reconciliation - and the cash-machine that might go with it - but only time will tell. I admit I'm not a huge Oasis fan, though also not a hater. The possibility of collaborations is of more immediate interest to me. As Jack White, Damon Albarn and many others have done, once away from their alma mater, the brothers Gallagher could both cut it and that might result in something out of their current mould.
On the other hand, Oasis or not, Manchester is hardly a musical desert. In my "I've Just Listened To" list I mentioned a newly released item by two Mancunians and here it is...

To say that the album artwork is basic is an understatement: it is hand stamped.

It is not going to sell thousands, whatever its merit, because it is a 12" vinyl-only release and also limited to 300 copies worldwide. Was it thus ridiculously expensive? Well no, actually, £7.99 plus the usual p&p.
The miscreants behind it are one half of 'Pendle Coven' - the 'Demdike alter ego' witch (sic) Elizabeth Southerns was identified with - and actually Miles Whittaker. The other contributor is Sean Canty, a notable vinyl collector across all imaginable genres, plus some more besides, and he is much involved with the 'Finders Keepers' label.
It might sound like folk territory but, in fact, it is total cross-genre electronica and is certainly none-the-worse for that.

Lyrics Again - Blue Roses, the album.

I've finally conceded to all the requests. Here they are in full:

Greatest Thoughts
This is the fortress that I built
Cold and uninviting
You stumbled on its stones last night
Beneath the trailing ivy.

These are the shoes that I had worn
It was on that day last winter when
You left me frozen and forlorn
I swore I'd never know you better.

But, oh! You did not know me at all
'Til you had seen me fight
With the dead of the night.

Still, you pulled me closer to your chest and
You were the one that I liked the best,
But I always thought that if someone loved me at all
They would give up the things that I detest.

I know that you'd never change a thing
Not for anyone or anything,
But when you cannot spare an hour won't you
Spare a thought for a dying flower.

But, oh! Who really knows you at all
If you cannot talk of your greatest thoughts?

Still, you pulled me closer to your chest and
You were the one that I loved best
So go to the fields and wait for me there
And I will show you the paths I used to tread.

High on the hill where the rain came down,
Punching its holes in the cold hard ground, well
I stood in your shadow
Jumping and starting at every sound.

Cover Your Tracks
Go, cover your tracks in the snow
Time is slow.
My hands are empty,
Go home.

Years, concrete and cold,
They stared me down.
Avoid town-
Hollow and empty
And falling down.

Oh, we searched all night
For a piece of bread,
And then when it comes
Give it to the birds instead.

Today he was here,
Holding my arms,
"All's not lost!
Your head's not empty!
Come home!"

Oh, I've searched all night
For a piece of bread,
And then when it comes
Give it to the birds instead.

I am leaving
When I decided
To live the rest of my life from a list
Of towns and cities,
And populations,
My home was silent.

My town was hidden somewhere in the dark
And a spark
Ignited my imagination.

Oh! gave me a clue somehow!
My days are so mis-spent now
I'm wasting my time
Worrying all about you.

Oh, soulless city!
Your changing skyline is twisting me up inside
I give away another minute.

All through the stations
I wonder whether constellations can change
A leaden sky, a heart unmoving
I'll tear up letters
I'll take some pictures from their frames
To make a story from the way I'm choosing.

Can't Sleep
When we sleep
The air is made of silence.
The light that cracks our windows
Is settling like dust
And while you dream I lie.
My eyes are staring upwards
Beyond this ceiling's heaven.
Is that where we're aspiring?
Or don't you know?

These are the days that bring me round again.
Tried to stop the sun from falling out of the sky
With my bare hands out.

Oh we ran and ran
You ask too many questions
The birds that sing at night time
They restored my faith in town but
For too long.

And God knows,
I want to write a love song
You asked me so nicely for one.
I promise I will do one
Before too long.

These are the days that bring me round again.
Tried to stop the sun from falling out of the sky
With my bare hands out.

Listen to me-
Oh my...oh my darling
I will never believe you again
But please start trying
'Cause I don't want to leave you.

Oh, from this day on
I promise I won't wish on
Anything unreachable,
Especially the stars,
'Cause they're too far away, yes.
They're too far away.
They're too far away.

I Wish I...
I called you and got what I deserved.
Heard that laughing in your words.
I wish that I could photograph my moods,
Show them to you,
Just to prove
Something.

Down in the town, I'm trying to prove something
But the clock hands won't move
So I'll go on singing about the same thing
And reading myself into books.

The roadside buildings are black-eyed and aged,
They can't see me anymore.
How would I mean anything to anything
Now I am not the hues in your city square puddles?

But when he touched my hand like it was gold,
I want to pull away and say,
"Look, it's only...
It's only made from plain old skin and bone
Don't try to give me credit you don't owe me!"

You've got your eye on the door.
This is what my life is for now.
I'll pray that you won't drop your anchor here.
We'll share our ancedotes from last time we spoke.
We'll never change.

Let's go out for a drive in your car
We don't have to go that far.
Let's try to find a road that we don't know
Till we don't know where we are.

And I can smell the bonfires in the street,
I want to say that I love you...love you

But you've got your eye on the door.
This is what my life is for now.
I'll pray that you won't drop your anchor here.
We'll share our ancedotes from last time we spoke.
We'll never change.

Coast
Leave my house
Leave the troubles at the door
I need the coast of the East of England

He says "We're all going one day
Why cling on?"
I think that he and I will be saved.

I want to see the electricity
On the masts of the ships
As the storm builds.

Lighthouse beams-
I know where I am
By counting the flashes.

Years ago read that there were
Ghosts here.

I want to see the electricity
On the masts of the ships
As the storm builds.

Does Anyone Love Me Now?
(When we were on the way).
I know we're too far away when I see besteepled plains.
Nothing is concealed,
Nothing is revealed by the brow of a hill.
I believe in plans
And I believe in maps that you drew
Sitting next to me.

Two nights in a row
I didn't see the moon hanging in the sky
And I need its cool pale face
To believe in this place and believe your lies.

Imagination-go! And free me from your secrets-
Heavy and cold as stone.

Well does anyone love me?
'Cause I asked the deep sea,
But it wouldn't speak to me.
My darling I'm sorry.

And I tried so hard.
So long, so long.
By the time I woke up
Then you were gone.

And on the way back home
Our wandering eyes met fleetingly in window glass
And we're etched on a block of night.
Its something I will treasure
And you'll just let pass.

I will just lie in wait
If only to hear the stories
You don't seem to know how to tell.

Well does anyone love me?
'Cause I asked the deep sea,
But it wouldn't speak to me.
My darling I'm sorry.

Doubtful Comforts
When you come home tonight, my love
Will you take me out somewhere?

You're so good at getting my hopes up
Where they don't belong-
I can't reach them.

This is the place that appears in my mind,
Covered with orange lights,
That I've seen countless times.
When can we find a place where we'll stay for a while?
Till we come back in style.
Oh, they don't know the half of it.

Walls crumble and fall.
You don't have to carry the weight of it all.

Rebecca
I have come to realise
My bad memories
Were an indulgence of mine.

So I close my tired eyes-
Stop this train of thought.
Stop it dead in its tracks.

But will you put your faith in something
When you are afraid?
That's what we were taught-
To bow our heads and pray.

Turn yourself around.
You can do better Rebecca.
Turn yourself around.
Make yourself better Rebecca.

I can sit and try to conjure words,
But there is nothing left to prove to you.
Let me sit and watch you working-
I won't be a pain.
You will not notice me at all.

Gone like seasons
All wasted.
I did not hate winter
Like a child.

Imaginary Fights
I heard a song and remembered his bed.
Love alive and love dead.
I'll never believe in the things that you said,
anyway.
Love alive and love dead.

A matter of time, yes,
I knew it would be.
Until there was a bad dream
In which you forgot about me
And cursed the stars
And cursed the sea,

But oh, how I hate it when you go,
So, I'll walk to the station.
I'll see you leave.
I'll see you leave.

Sixes and sevens, and dimly lit lights.
A lifetime full of sleepless nights.
Imaginary glimpses at imaginary fights.
You're better off leaving-
Just go in the night.

What's not to love? Live and new Music 2009 - Part 12

I was reading the set-list and synopses of the bands booked to to appear at 'The End Of The Road 2009' and, while I might try listening to Herman Dune again it is a band that (and it is rare that I blog this) I found rather disappointing at 'Latitude 2007' not least for stating in between almost every song "We are Herman Dune", just in case we might otherwise forget or possibly want to. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, it's true, and I'd risk them again but only if there were no competition from a band that I have a burning desire to hear.

As it happens there are potentially many, not least ones that have played at Latitude over the 2007-9 period which, for one reason or another, I have missed out on. It could become something of a folk-roots-Americana fest, at least in so far as I'm concerned, but if that is what I want to hear then I will.
I've mentioned, in this regard, a couple of bands already but they are ones that I have not even had the opportunity to see before. One in the "missed" category is Okkervil River. I've long regretted failing to see them live at Latitude 2008, now only more so for discovering this album, which was also released in the US in 2008...

I can fix the first problem, as Okkervill River are playing 'End Of The Road 2009', but the above band is perhaps even more interesting; She Swings, She Sways are not appearing and I don't think this six-piece, all from south-east Iowa, have ever even toured in Europe before... but I hope they will do so soon.

Latitude - live with little comment...

Some more pictures from Latitude 2009 (unless noted otherwise) with little, if any, comment on each but if you want to know more about them either leave a comment (anonymously if you wish) or e-mail me.

Marina Diamandis live on the Lake Stage on Sunday.


D'où donc vient le danger - Caroline Martial? (One half of Kap Bambino...)

Hjaltalin - on the Uncut Arena on Sunday...

...followed by iLiKETRAiNS.

Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing...

'The more you have the more you look' is not quite the oxymoron that it might appear to be. Inquisition and acquisition, or at least the desire to do so, are little more than two sides of the same coin.
I mentioned Snowbird, Sleepless Night and Stephanie Dosen yesterday evening and I have just listened to Marissa Nadler - Little Hells (an album that only gets better on repeated listening) so, just now, this is another addition to my 'wants list' even though I was totally unaware of the artist or album this time yesterday evening...

..and not one particularly well known in the UK just now, I contend.

Will I like it?
I don't know, so I can't tell you as I've heard none of this album, or the artist for that matter, but I think so. That has to be the way of things, at least much of the time, because otherwise one would never buy, perhaps even hear and pay attention to, much that is new beyond the usual boundaries of radio or mainstream reviews.
I'll know whether my confidence is well placed, or indeed was not, in a fortnight or so when it arrives from the US. I could have had it slightly quicker and more cheaply had I gone for the CD option but since it was marginal and she is a UK artist why not, if for no reason other than to be contrary and because I like the format, have the original US vinyl release?

A Snowbird In The Gardens Of The North - New Music 2009 - Part 11

This is the continuation of the topic that I mentioned in Music I Want - Part 10 - Infinite Light a week ago (yes, I have it now, it is that good but for a later post).
As I also mentioned then that August is supposed to be a quiet time for album releases; all I can say about that is I hate to imagine what the Autumn-Spring 2009/2010 might bring (aside from the inevitable crop of "festive releases").

No great revelation is this one, given that I'd already mentioned that Bella Union releases would be a theme even before I had a little strop last Friday concerning, amonst other things, the importance of independent labels...

I almost deleted that post yesterday but changed my mind in the end. I'm glad now that I let it be - it was written when it was written: I have never actually deleted a published post in its entirety which, given the blog title, makes sense to me as yesterday's thoughts might not be the same as today's thoughts.

More importantly perhaps, even at my age, occasionally throwing ones toys out of the pram is still - at the very least metaphorically - cathartic and as any child knows it is so much more satisfying to do it when there is an audience, be it a real or imaginary one.

This item is one well publicised and it is on pre-order from an independent retailer. It is the first full-length album from Sleeping States, released in the UK on 17 August by Bella Union, which is fronted by historically peripatetic, but currently Bristol-based, Markland Starkie who is yet another arist I must catch live as soon as possible.
Talking of artists signed to Bella Union in the UK here are two more that I want to see live - Fleet Foxes and The Low Anthem - and that is as near a certainty as is ever possible as they are both playing at 'End Of The Road 2009' and I'm going to that.

When I went to Latitude 2007 however, my first festival in decades, one of the artists who made an immediate impression on the Sunset Stage was then a rather little known singer-songwriter from rural Wisconsin, Stephanie Dosen, who had recently been signed by a label (guess which) that had then just released her second album. I still listen to 'A Lily For The Spectre' on rotation, which says a great deal. It does not, however, demonstrate just what an amazingly good live artist she is.

Why I didn't use this picture two years ago is now an utter mystery to me and I despair!

[Click to enlarge]

Be that as it may she is currently recording her third solo album, again for Bella Union, which should be released in the spring of 2010. The reason it has taken so long is that she's actually recording two albums at the same time - Snowbird is a collaboration between herself and, Bella Union co-founder and ex-Cocteau Twin, Simon Raymonde (in partnership with Robin Guthrie, also of Cocteau Twins). Snowbird have played a few support gigs in the UK since the spring of this year and I haven't caught one of these yet but the potential is obvious.

The Eutectic Point...

The MTV and Mercury Music awards are now both shortlisted, so it is that time of year again. I imagine that many in the major labels are wringing their hands although it is likely that they will score some successes in 2009 even if the personal cost might have been high for music industry executives in terms of bonuses.

Hiya!

'real world' --- aka 'the rest of us' --- because we've known exactly that for ages and were not paid a penny for our wisdom.

I'm happy living with my thought that that the industry is, finally, undergoing some kind of corporate cognitive therapy, resulting in a very slow transformation in terms of both self-awareness and of the changing situation. The issue is that depite (maybe even because of) the riches the-gravy-train that recorded-music history granted them for almost fifty years the magic has finally worn so thin as to have as-wide-an-appeal as a dried-out-tea-bag, awaiting its second-coming, in a student house.
It took, however, the better part of a decade for the industry to wake-up to, let alone make attempts at full engagement with, the new reality. My experience is that students learn such things much faster and probably because they simply have to.

The four major labels are certainly not out of the woods yet but at least they are trying. The real issue is that the decades of sycophantic hegemony are over; it is now a long-established industry under attack from more directions than merely those posed by the rise of illegal downloading alone. That is, however, a phenomenon that both they and the High Street music stores handled catastrophically: a case of corporate self-denial, in the face of a blindingly-obvious rapid change in circumstances, if ever there were one.
Many of the new threats are, and have every reason to remain, valid as they are quite legal and that too is largely a massive failure on the part of the existing players in the market. It is hard to say for sure but, had things been done differently and I'm not talking Draconian measures here, I can't help but think that the 'big-four' might not be in the situation in which they now find themselves.

Good luck independent labels - you are amongst the forces of the future!