The article is on page 28 of the magazine's digital reader.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Politics/Music #5: Bad Religion
Check out my politicsSLASHmusic column in this month's splendid Notion Magazine as I offer up some free PR work for punk-rock legends Bad Religion and their excellent new record, reliving my youth as a 15-year old punk in long-shorts and Vans hoodies in the process. Includes a potted history of the band's finest sub-30 minute classics, plus an exploration of how they fitted into the early-80s recession overseen by Thatcher and Reagan, and why they're now more relevant than ever. One small step in my mission to make punk-rock cool again.
The article is on page 28 of the magazine's digital reader.
The article is on page 28 of the magazine's digital reader.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Interview: Everything Everything
Interview with Manchester-based art-rock chart champions Everything Everything. Check out the condensed version over at Spoonfed.co.uk, or the expanded reissue below.
Hype can be a poisoned chalice. The balloon can quickly burst on some poor feted next big thing, whether commercially or critically. Worse still, a band can be left trailing in the triumphant wake of their like-minded peers, labeled as Johnny-come-latelys to a party they might have helped start, or simply engulfed by the hot air cloud surrounding contemporaries and forgotten.
It’s a fate which could have befallen Everything Everything. Labeled part of a spurious ‘Manchester scene’ – although the quartet formed in Manchester, none of their members hail from the musically fertile metropolis – the band had been forced to play third fiddle whilst fellow leading lights Delphic and Hurts saw their stock soar. All three were long-listed for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, but only Everything Everything failed to make the final shortlist. As 2010 stuttered to life, Delphic hit the top ten with debut album Acolyte, while just a day before the release of Everything Everything’s own debut Hurts scored an unlikely singles chart hit with the icy synthpop of ‘Wonderful Life’. Meanwhile, the band was left fretting over their prospective fortunes as trailing single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ stalled at a hundred and twenty-one.
They needn’t have worried, as Man Alive duly gate crashed the UK top twenty, picking up open-mouthed plaudits en route. It was a fitting prize for a record which fizzes with invention, often flitting seamlessly between unconventional time signatures before peaking in a series of beautifully melodic art-pop choruses, all held together with the dexterous falsetto yelp of frontman Jonathan Higgs.
If the music both challenges and rewards, then the band themselves are a far more straightforward proposition. Preparing to perform at a Spotify/3G sponsored show at Shoreditch Town Hall, I find Higgs and drummer Michael Spearman in genial spirits. Articulate and warm, they riff off one another; touching upon in-jokes without ever seeming exclusive, while their answers exhibit a sharp, self-deprecating wit underpinning thoughtful reflections – starting with their reaction to music scenes.
It’s a fate which could have befallen Everything Everything. Labeled part of a spurious ‘Manchester scene’ – although the quartet formed in Manchester, none of their members hail from the musically fertile metropolis – the band had been forced to play third fiddle whilst fellow leading lights Delphic and Hurts saw their stock soar. All three were long-listed for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, but only Everything Everything failed to make the final shortlist. As 2010 stuttered to life, Delphic hit the top ten with debut album Acolyte, while just a day before the release of Everything Everything’s own debut Hurts scored an unlikely singles chart hit with the icy synthpop of ‘Wonderful Life’. Meanwhile, the band was left fretting over their prospective fortunes as trailing single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ stalled at a hundred and twenty-one.
They needn’t have worried, as Man Alive duly gate crashed the UK top twenty, picking up open-mouthed plaudits en route. It was a fitting prize for a record which fizzes with invention, often flitting seamlessly between unconventional time signatures before peaking in a series of beautifully melodic art-pop choruses, all held together with the dexterous falsetto yelp of frontman Jonathan Higgs.
If the music both challenges and rewards, then the band themselves are a far more straightforward proposition. Preparing to perform at a Spotify/3G sponsored show at Shoreditch Town Hall, I find Higgs and drummer Michael Spearman in genial spirits. Articulate and warm, they riff off one another; touching upon in-jokes without ever seeming exclusive, while their answers exhibit a sharp, self-deprecating wit underpinning thoughtful reflections – starting with their reaction to music scenes.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Politics/Music #4: New New Labour and Brothers in Arms
Go and check out the PoliticsSlashMusic column in this month's Notion Magazine for a (not very) detailed exploration of the Miliband's infighting and the death of New Labour. And then a few columns of guff about brothers in bands who liked to fight one another, like The Kinks and Oasis. You can thank me later.
The article can be found on page 37 using the Digital Reader at the following link:
http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/67/
The article can be found on page 37 using the Digital Reader at the following link:
http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/67/
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Under the Radar Indie Labels
As another week of the X Factor bites the soporific dust, in its wake 21st century music aficionados could be forgiven for feeling a little left out.
Simon Cowell owns the airwaves; High Fidelity-esque niche independent record stores continue to close at an alarming rate. Oh, and Phil Collins is back in the top five of the charts. These are dark days, are they not?
Well, actually no. The charts may seem like a watered down recreation of a Friday night playlist at a cheap club, but that hasn’t stopped independent record labels springing up left, right and centre to get great underground music out into the public domain.
Some of our best loved bands of the past decade – from British Sea Power to Best Coast – have been housed by efficiently run and artistically fertile ‘indies’. Beyond these, however, there exist scores of tiny labels who put out records purely as a labour of love. Here are a few of the best under-the-radar UK independent labels you might never have heard of...
Read the rest of this blog at Virgin.com/music
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Interview: Gang of Four
Go and check out my interview with post-punk legends Gang of Four for my politicsSLASHmusic column in Notion magazine...
http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/64/ - Page 40 of the Digital Reader
http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/64/ - Page 40 of the Digital Reader
Interview: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Some words I did for Spoonfed.co.uk after a chat with SSLYBY...
Being as easily amused as small child at Christmas, I’ve always tended to love bands with faintly amusing names – ‘The Yummy Furs’ (snigger), ‘Japandroids’ (guffaw), ‘Roy Division’ (somebody stop me). Presumably the exact same strand of my uncomplicated DNA encourages a partiality to hummable, easily digested power-pop.
Imagine then how palpably excited I was upon learning that Springfield, Missouri tykes Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin had returned with a brand new record, the ripsnortingly catchy Let It Sway. Excited enough to hunt them down and ask them about it (and a bunch of other things), that’s how.
Important matters first: what’s in the name? I’m sure you get this one a lot.
We were teenagers. We thought it would be good idea to have a really long band name. Boris Yeltsin was in the news a lot because everyone was making fun of his alcoholism and political ineptitude. We used his name without thinking anything about it. He was a terrible president, so I'm sure we've offended a lot of people.
You guys are originally from Springfield, Missouri – is there much of a burgeoning indie scene there? Do you think you found it tougher not being East or West coast boys and tied to a big city?
In the 1950s there was a nationally televised music show in Springfield called The Ozark Jubilee. Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash appeared on it regularly. Also, Jonathan Richman recorded an album here with a Springfield band called the Skeletons in the '80s. It's called 'Jonathan Goes Country' and I recommend it highly.
Anyway, I think the internet makes it somewhat irrelevant where you're from. My life has been too busy lately to think about the scenes in Brooklyn and LA. I'm sure they have cooler jeans, but mine were really cheap...
Read the FULL INTERVIEW here
 |
| They are firestarters, twisted firestarters |
Being as easily amused as small child at Christmas, I’ve always tended to love bands with faintly amusing names – ‘The Yummy Furs’ (snigger), ‘Japandroids’ (guffaw), ‘Roy Division’ (somebody stop me). Presumably the exact same strand of my uncomplicated DNA encourages a partiality to hummable, easily digested power-pop.
Imagine then how palpably excited I was upon learning that Springfield, Missouri tykes Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin had returned with a brand new record, the ripsnortingly catchy Let It Sway. Excited enough to hunt them down and ask them about it (and a bunch of other things), that’s how.
Important matters first: what’s in the name? I’m sure you get this one a lot.
We were teenagers. We thought it would be good idea to have a really long band name. Boris Yeltsin was in the news a lot because everyone was making fun of his alcoholism and political ineptitude. We used his name without thinking anything about it. He was a terrible president, so I'm sure we've offended a lot of people.
You guys are originally from Springfield, Missouri – is there much of a burgeoning indie scene there? Do you think you found it tougher not being East or West coast boys and tied to a big city?
In the 1950s there was a nationally televised music show in Springfield called The Ozark Jubilee. Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash appeared on it regularly. Also, Jonathan Richman recorded an album here with a Springfield band called the Skeletons in the '80s. It's called 'Jonathan Goes Country' and I recommend it highly.
Anyway, I think the internet makes it somewhat irrelevant where you're from. My life has been too busy lately to think about the scenes in Brooklyn and LA. I'm sure they have cooler jeans, but mine were really cheap...
Read the FULL INTERVIEW here
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Gecko - New Bands
New music highly recommended by The Popscener.
Today's hotshots: Gecko
Not necessarily the usual fare The Popscener vibes, but two beautifully sunny days to start this week mean that Bristolian duo Gecko have my stolen my affections with their acoustico-pop and bonhomic cheer. However, that's not to damn them with the faintest praise; they certainly know their way around a melody and are refreshingly neither surf, shoegaze or folk - perhaps making them unique amongst their current peers.
In short: Mariachi El Bronx + Jamie T + Summer boozing = Gecko
Not necessarily the usual fare The Popscener vibes, but two beautifully sunny days to start this week mean that Bristolian duo Gecko have my stolen my affections with their acoustico-pop and bonhomic cheer. However, that's not to damn them with the faintest praise; they certainly know their way around a melody and are refreshingly neither surf, shoegaze or folk - perhaps making them unique amongst their current peers.
In short: Mariachi El Bronx + Jamie T + Summer boozing = Gecko
Try: Guanabana Juice (live) below, but there are far better tracks (What You Gonna Do?) on the myspace.
http://www.myspace.com/gecko
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