tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33315272011-07-07T21:58:30.932-07:00reallyratherbetter soundsSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-82298838222092209882010-04-20T15:47:00.000-07:002010-04-22T05:47:29.659-07:00'It's gonna be a good year, don't you think so?'But, persuasive as they are, don't just take The School's word for it. According to the latest edition of Mojo, this one month alone sees the release of 42 albums worthy of 4 stars out of five, ie 'brilliant'. By their reckoning that's 42 records just one star shy of equaling the most enduring, era-defining albums ever made. Aah, those crude ratingsSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-60399704834474921112010-03-06T05:53:00.000-08:002010-03-07T09:06:32.316-08:00They're gonna loosen you up...Some time in the distant past this blog fantasized about the perfectness that might emerge if ever M. Ward were to get his hands (so to speak) on the Be Good Tanyas. Unerring pop melodicism meets unadorned female folksy harmonizin', how good would that be? We're unlikely ever to find out, of course, but that may not matter so much now that the debut collection from SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-26452321412532400932010-01-31T23:54:00.000-08:002010-02-01T05:41:26.450-08:00Fellow seekers after fresh pop brilliantness, rejoice...
The words 'bang' and 'on' spring instantly to mind, do they not? Taken from the latest Boy Omega album The ghost that broke in half which crept out in Europe late last year...
[boy omega][myspace]
...and if you like that you're likely to appreciate some even fresher greatness courtesy of matt pond PA. The building, instantly distinctive SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-82364514214830206712009-12-31T12:30:00.000-08:002010-01-03T08:06:45.211-08:00The wrongness of everyone, the rightness of me...
...aka reallyrather's top 10 for 2009, being a mix of whammo guitar noiseage and expert popsmithing, occasionally on the same record...
[Coloured-in edition]
10. The xx / self-titled
Third best British debut of the year, alarmingly singular and chilled effort from these Putney teens. Where was this in everyone else's list, eh? Well?? Oh yes, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-16468572390010322492009-11-22T06:24:00.000-08:002009-11-23T05:33:41.416-08:00"For those about to folk, we salute you..."
...the so-called Monsters of Folk didn't say at their show last week at The Troxy in east London. In fact, they hardly said anything at all (and what they did utter was mostly in Spanish!), content to, yes, yes, let the music do the talking across a three-hour set. It seems a tad perverse to complain of too much music (it, after all, being what we've SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-44958467794765258832009-10-27T08:03:00.000-07:002009-10-28T09:01:23.764-07:00Though in truth his music doesn't totally hit this blog's spot, there's plenty engaging about Tom Brosseau's vaguely distracted, generous personality live in performance. And even more so when it's augmented, as at the Windmill in Brixton last Thursday, by empathetic assists from no less than Shelley Short, native member of fertile Portland alt-folk scene on her first UK.Sharing a kind of artlessSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-75379190891391079882009-09-20T06:28:00.000-07:002009-09-21T05:47:27.103-07:00To the fourth End of the Road Festival at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Dorset/Wilts borders. A lovely pit-stop in glorious sunshine amongst the fruit & veg at the nearby Pythouse Kitchen Garden augered well and, weather-wise at least, EotR IV proved to be the best one yet. Sold out some time in advance but capacity still excellently (and, methinks, crucially) held at 5,000, there were few musical SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-18329602513321590302009-08-22T05:24:00.000-07:002009-08-30T05:47:30.505-07:00So anyway, listen...
Library Voices are yet another of those Canadian troupes with far more members than is strictly necessary to produce their noise [ten?!]. They haven't crossed the border yet and have just an EP to their name. Amazingly, this cracker isn't on it - Haunt this house will haunt your brain:
But EPs are excellent things, generally; so many records would be better as mini albumsSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-9091744898107215922009-07-26T05:15:00.000-07:002009-07-27T05:33:30.985-07:00Scale and amazing drainage, that's what Latitude has going for it. Well, that and being just a couple of miles from the Suffolk seaside. It's a compact performance arena with only the Sunrise stage taking more than 60 seconds to walk to and 'only' 25,000 folks in your way. And though there's all the comedy, spoken word and experimental film & theatre you can handle, for this blog it's still SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-15829824859087754882009-07-14T14:46:00.000-07:002009-07-21T10:36:58.563-07:00So much time, so little to say...
So then, My Sad Captains. They released their debut album, you know. Here & elsewhere, that's what they've called it which could refer to many things but not to where you'll find some words about it. The 'here' bit is right enough .. but elsewhere? Barely. It has been unObserved. The NME mustered a blah review then the editor announced his resignation; its not SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-80132015667655280482009-06-08T08:33:00.000-07:002009-06-10T05:53:20.252-07:00If someone sees me, let me know...*
Flinging out skittering indie-pop goodness like their lives depended on it, Heart shackles is cracker no.5 this year from NY combo My Teenage Stride. Promising a track a month in '09, it comes hard on the heals of likes of the galloping Gallipoli now and the more typical Cast your own shadow, all well up to the calibre of last album, rr 2007 top tenner Ears SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-61978685361068088742009-05-02T07:26:00.000-07:002009-05-04T08:57:41.638-07:00OK, they've had long enough, it looks like it just isn't going to happen. After years of being woefully off-the-pace reviews-wise, reallyrather has come to expect the UK national press not to miss much that's worthwhile (even if they do still generally wait 'til they've had a copy sent to them free). But it seems even the most extensive and eclectic sections - things like the Observer Music SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-51680330689602357552009-03-05T15:12:00.000-08:002009-04-06T05:56:34.518-07:00'Here comes the springtime again...'A mere three years after this blog first caught them live, an album with the name My Sad Captains down the spine is finally within sight. Stolen Recordings will put out the quintet's debut Here & elsewhere this summer. Interesting to see which songs have made the cut - Building blocks is there, for instance, one of the oldest (and now least played live) but SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-76473749564169795122009-02-14T06:49:00.000-08:002009-02-18T14:12:29.945-08:00Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and surrender. Caught by this blog in their raw, evolutionary form a few times back in '07, Scots mob Dananananaykroyd have since spent time in the US honing the first album. Black wax is first out of the traps: hole in one, back of the net, bullseye, etc. Dismemberment Plan-meets-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Hopefully, there'll be a bitSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-52092997778787604182009-01-18T01:42:00.000-08:002009-01-18T08:46:53.745-08:00It's a bit like the first cuckoo of spring. No sooner does the new calendar get pinned to the wall than here it is, the album that 'raises the bar for 2009'; 'if there are many better released it's going to be a great, great year'; 'certain to be a 'Top 10' staple come December', etc etc. This time it's that Animal Collective album which is doubtless very cosmic and transporting in a Mercury SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-17511495173820175382008-12-31T04:31:00.000-08:002009-01-01T09:31:43.555-08:00Music for pleasure...Ten for 2008, pop bliss ahoy! Not ranked but if there's a common thread its good editing - lots of sub-40min running times with artists boiling things right down to just the good stuff. Filler-free, just how we likes it...Kensington Prairie / Captured in still lifeMaybe its the time of year which makes this billowy, pillowy debut collection from Rebecca Rowan's latest band SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-79132845906548082702008-11-18T15:21:00.000-08:002008-11-19T03:15:35.599-08:00If you were there you'd know...For reasons beyond this blog's control, reallyrather wasn't there back in 1965 when the Motor Town Revue was tearing up the dancehalls of England. Happily, a contemporary take was available for two delirious nights last week at the Jazz Cafe in Camden courtesy of Oakland's Raphael Saadiq and a sizzlin' nine-piece band. Trailing his startling faithful Tamla homage SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-31457216598488260392008-10-25T07:20:00.000-07:002008-10-27T15:23:07.291-07:00So then, loveliness, something this blog has never been shy to embrace. There's not nearly as much of it about as there ought to be quite frankly so hitting a new pure seam is always cause to get the bunting out. Flowing like a clearwater spring from the Canadian wilds (alright, Ontario), it's Kensington Prairie......and their debut release, now some months old, Captured in still life. Forty SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-19618663005118202572008-09-25T06:41:00.000-07:002008-09-27T09:34:00.181-07:00Welly......that was this blog's word of the weekend at the End of the Road Festival earlier this month. Though not de rigeur, a solid pair of gumboots were absolument nécessaire as 10,000 feet churned up the saturated arena ground. And several acts packed a unexpected wallop.Slightly disappointingly, this time round much of the music at the 3rd EotR came to resemble the mud underfoot - or SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-19885280491105542222008-09-06T05:30:00.000-07:002008-09-09T06:45:31.760-07:00Wye o Wye...It's long since been irrelevant in terms of aquisition but the business of which non-UK albums get picked up for an 'official' release over here remains a vaguely mystifying, random-seeming process. Out of nowhere recently, for instance, have come a couple of old-ish records which someone somewhere has been energized to re-release: the slightly over-rated Snow tires by Unbunny [SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-85538916833564458262008-07-31T08:13:00.000-07:002008-08-09T05:11:16.413-07:00I don't know a goddamn thing, thank god*News of a couple of forthcoming releases which reallyrather is quite possibly entirely alone in anticipating over this side of the water::: a record called Art project is being readied by Mascott aka Kendall Jane Meade & her latest cohorts. Back in '04 Dreamer's book got a single thumbs-up and its brightest moments still linger in the mind. 'If Aimee Mann SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-42699096280117515772008-07-23T04:54:00.000-07:002008-07-23T08:27:46.448-07:00Fogey-ish humourist Craig Brown felt obliged to go to a music festival and, as he told Daily Telegraph readers yesterday, didn't like it one little bit:'Not all that long ago, if you wanted to pay money to stand with thousands of others to get drenched in a field you would be obliged to go to your local point-to-point. Now, pop festivals fulfil the same function, but they have the added benefit SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-51467577239040508182008-06-11T04:55:00.000-07:002008-06-16T09:38:50.081-07:00Men - more specifically musicians - in hats, its a rum business and no mistaking. A band like The Hold Steady, for example, never really stood a chance round here thanks in no small part to that guy in the hat. What a 'character' he must be. Is he called Joey? They usually are. This kind of self-conscious image statement is just an embarrassing distraction: 'Yeah, OK, but what's with the hat?' SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-19323026946492570392008-05-31T14:22:00.000-07:002008-06-03T10:52:59.058-07:00'On Skinny Love, Vernon's vocals turn from a shiver to a raw, pained cry, eyes squeezed shut and body trembling as he loses himself in the song,' said The Guardian of Bon Iver's turn at The Scala last week. Gripping stuff, I'm sure; reallyrather was there but, in common with about 75 per cent of the crowd, could see precisely none of this. Memo to seated artists: Get tall stools or push the drum SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-69136217610701959552008-04-27T09:18:00.000-07:002008-04-27T07:24:58.373-07:00For such a modest li'l offering the new album from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin has received puzzlingly hefty kickings in some heavyweight quarters. It's hard to know what were these folks were expecting. SSLYBY's debut Broom was an enjoyable DIY indie-pop effort, if a bit derivative and sonically undercooked, and got them signed to Polyvinyl. The clue to what you'll be getting's right SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-62017093829232411122008-04-04T08:02:00.000-07:002008-04-04T09:43:13.436-07:00First things first - and they don't get much firster, quite frankly - Centro-matic! Make that Centro-matic+tiny venue+15 minutes away! Yes, Matt, Mark, Will and Scott, Texas' best and longest-kept secret come to The Windmill in Brixton on the 19th. In the no-man's land between indie-rock and alt-c they've marked out their territory over at least half-a-dozen super-consistent albums. Will's dense,SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-28500855486710465032008-03-16T06:09:00.000-07:002008-03-17T10:12:51.403-07:00Excuses came there none...Avast ye, er, catchy indie-pop chappies. Common Sense is another prime slice of Swedish drollery from Salty Pirates, just the sort act that should be added to the End of the Road Festival 2008 which, so far, could do with a bit of lightening up...[salty pirates]reallyrather first caught our own Pete & the Pirates there last year. On early in the Big Top on the Sunday, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-48471938798742306382008-01-29T05:52:00.000-08:002008-04-04T09:20:41.318-07:00Sooo little goin' on... if Vampire Weekend and Black Mountain are really the best early '08 has to offer, reallyrather is happy to spend time down the soul mine. The technical term is, I believe, badass:Yes indeed, Give the people what they want:...like the Detroit Emeralds:So anyway......Miranda Lee Richards signs up with Nettwerk Records - hopfully, Lights on X will include most of these prettySMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-68484728634506077532007-12-31T17:10:00.000-08:002008-01-29T06:48:46.450-08:00So then, reallyrather's ten most played new releases of '07. No real pecking order here except for the (last-named) no.1, which was a straightforward, obvious selection. Mostly low-key melodic indie efforts which deserve a far wider hearing than they've (largely) so far received. In a shock development, matt pond's new record doesn't make it - not that its horrible or anything, far far from it, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-82259874664226294002007-12-23T04:08:00.000-08:002007-12-29T05:29:38.535-08:00It's an odd thing. The jukebox in reallyrather's head has had tunes like Change of scenery and All hat and no plans on rotation for the best part of a couple of years now and yet hardly anyone else in the whole world has ever heard them. They've been going round in the heads of their creators even longer, of course, but if they're getting sick of them it still isn't showing. To Brixton for the SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-88817793594498913732007-11-16T16:55:00.000-08:002007-11-19T06:06:24.350-08:00Who's a lazy boy, then...?Early November. It's a crap time of year and also a song by Miranda Lee Richards. Who? Over five years ago [!] reallyrather was mildly distracted by the debut album from this west coast songstress. Called The Herethereafter it seems to have survived every record collection cull since, largely on the strength of tracks 1-thru-5, drowsy, dreamy folky-pop-rock. Nice songs SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-36395760930721203002007-10-17T08:04:00.000-07:002007-11-17T06:06:52.166-08:00Hardest working band in the world contenders Loney, dear seem never to have been off the road for the past 18 months. This, of course, is a Good Thing, giving this blog and all right-thinking types plenty of opportunity to share the Scandinavian joy. Not quite such a good thing is that their current slew of UK dates are all support slots to sundry lesser acts - Athlete, Andrew Bird, Maps - who SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-32151512117210397972007-09-24T06:35:00.000-07:002007-11-08T06:15:32.256-08:00If all's well that ends well then the End of the Road Festival scored big on the old wellometer. Originally slated to clash directly with last-night main stage headliners Lambchop, circumstances or ye coming to of ye senses saw Jens Lekman pushed back to 11 o'clock in the Big Top thus effectively closing the festival unopposed. (He'd flipped places with Josh T Pearson whose nihilistic intensity SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-65190611281187793422007-09-13T09:01:00.000-07:002007-10-17T07:58:50.352-07:00'Lovers of Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine and classic skewed folkpop really owe it to themselves to check this amazing album out without delay - it's surely one of the year's best!' Ace UK indie/electronica retailer Boomkat goes rather too far overboard for the debut album from Iceland's Seabear. Back in May this blog put up the video for Hands remembered alongside that for a Benoit Pioulard song. SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-32281496626049564832007-08-15T08:50:00.000-07:002007-09-13T06:09:13.456-07:00Does any part of this blog look bothered...?Go away for a few days and the show's advertised, sold out and tickets going on ebay for four or five times face value. Rilo Kiley's gig at the Carling Academy next week will be the first London date by this band that reallyrather has missed. Reasons why this blog is relaxed and really , honestly, does not to care:1. the venue is rubbish2. the new SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-16919421652108553042007-07-29T10:20:00.000-07:002007-08-15T06:17:49.895-07:00To the pastoral idyll of Henham Park near the Suffolk coast for the Latitude Festival. Favourable reviews abound for the first renewal of this Mean Fiddler-organized event and this will broadly (8 pounds for a programme notwithstanding) be another. Depends what you want, of course. This is a pretty civilized affair where you had a far better chance of falling into conversation about plot SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1267125188460913402007-07-12T15:59:00.000-07:002007-08-02T08:58:39.780-07:00So then, this new Wheat record: 'Stunning return to form' or 'arrogant and simply shoddy'? reallyrather has long been in this band's corner but after six weeks or so of fairly constant exposure to the admittedly terribly titled Everyday I said a prayer for Kathy and made a one inch square is it perhaps time to tiptoe quietly away? Let's see, how shall we put this ... NO! Certainly, there are SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-52488520023385813422007-06-15T20:02:00.000-07:002007-07-12T09:54:56.075-07:00Intermittently active trio Ivy are one of the music scene's legion of nearly bands. Moderately successful purveyors of efficient, polished but ultimately uninvolving electric pop tunes leant a generally unearned air of sophisticated French lassitude by Dominque Durand's vague vocals. An Ivy album is the sort of record bought in moments of weakness; a glance at the shelf shows reallyrather has hadSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-42137915456314359622007-05-31T09:13:00.000-07:002007-07-12T09:21:09.474-07:00Oh blimey......hope the Wheat guys have still got the tin hats handy from last time. If Scott & Brendan thought the kicking Per second, per second.. got was bad, 'comeback' record Everyday I said a prayer, etc has been greeted with comments like::: 'simply shoddy' - Popmatters:: 'scrappy' - Village Voiceand:: 'a real copout' - StylusSo it's a right load of crap then, yes? Er...:: 'a triumph' - SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-87357731263316746462007-05-26T09:56:00.003-07:002007-07-12T09:15:57.281-07:00Did you ever pick up the Benoit Pioulard album from last year, Precis? You should, its just great. And that shimmery clattering sound he goes for is suddenly popping up all over. Listen to something like Benoit's Triggering back [above]then try 5.15 train from A Sunny Day in Glasgow's recent debut Scribble Mural Comic Journal [go] and follow that with Seabear's Hands remember [below]. Swish...SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-4965427055539345942007-05-26T09:56:00.001-07:002007-05-26T10:03:11.988-07:00...and, in the last-named instance, Icelandic. Seabear was originally just Sindri Már Sigfússon; he recorded some tunes, people asked him to play them so he's now a band. The ghost that carried us away is in the shops now if you're in Reykjavic but Morr Music bring it to the world in August... [tbc]SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-71734713138294096482007-05-02T23:50:00.000-07:002007-05-03T07:47:43.995-07:00Look, sometimes smorgasbord really is the only word for it...A blissful show from latest Swedish phenom Loney, dear at the Water Rats. On easily the best form this blog has yet witnessed, the quintet quickly reached a perfect pop pitch and pretty much stayed across the hour or so. The levitating peak for this blog came about three-quarters of the way in with Carrying a stone, its tambo-powered SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-43157227351198808122007-04-20T07:49:00.000-07:002007-04-21T08:39:48.284-07:00Good things come to those who......Wheat! This blog somewhat sleepwalked into booking up for the Latitude Festival in July. Apart from Arcade Fire being closing headliners and it being in a rather lovely part of the world (near Southwold on the Suffolk coast), the reasons weren't too obvious. With other headliners including the deadly dull The Good, the Bad and the Queen and Damien Rice, and the SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-23580330192077728182007-03-29T16:16:00.000-07:002007-03-31T10:42:37.024-07:00The last track on the album is And I won't cause anything at all. Three-and-a-half faultlessly dapper minutes of laptop loveliness pulsed along by softly honkin' horns, it fits this blog like a favourite t-shirt. A far better way of ending a record than the all-to-common tendency towards bloated grandiosity (invariably misguided and mood-destroying), its pitch-perfect chipperness would see it SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-34696674887581798922007-03-13T11:38:00.000-07:002007-03-15T10:56:12.632-07:00Funny who gets noticed and who doesn't. Take Carolyn Berk and Tara Jane O'Neil. The latter releases the pleasant post-folk of In cirles on an 'interesting' label and it gets written up, and favourably, in plenty of the right places. Songs like Blue light room and The louder sound a bit like Berk's vehicle Lovers, but drabber. Yet Lovers latest full-length appears and seems to be barely noticed atSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1170784711441969222007-02-21T09:41:00.000-08:002007-03-01T04:37:44.964-08:00That's exactly what I wanted......exactly that. It's the EP's title and, on hearing the overdue return to record of low-key indie rock marvels Wheat, reallyrather is surely not alone in thinking it utterly apposite. Holygoddamn! This is gorgeous!, might've been an alternative. Or maybe Stop, you bastards, you're killing me. While the band's relative scarcity of output undoubtedly has something toSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1170177956232822802007-02-02T09:24:00.000-08:002007-02-04T06:45:59.993-08:00That was then, this is......still then, sort of. Ducking the blizzard of new year hype, reallyrather has been spending time with some late arrivals at the '06 ball. The aim here having always been to minimize the risk of wasting money on unrewarding rubbish, this blog is happy to report it's last three acquisitions have all hit the back of the net...Most particularly and in some ways most SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1168264545739296342007-01-17T05:09:00.000-08:002007-01-17T07:07:50.196-08:00There's nothing we can do about it......apparently. In what looks ominously like becoming a New Year tradition, the UK print media have been busy telling us who we're going to like in '07. The 'taste-makers' and 'scenesters' have been consulted and the following will defintely get famous, be absolutely everywhere, soundtrack your year, etc etc: The View, The Twang, The Klaxons, Jamie T, Cold War SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1167582308009557862006-12-31T23:23:00.000-08:002007-01-03T08:27:53.660-08:00The List......which will not include Beirut nor Joanna Newsom nor TV on the Radio or The Hold Steady or The Knife or or...etc etc. This blog has read about them all, of course, and is completely relaxed in not feeling the need to actually hear them. More than ever, reallyrather is trusting its instincts. Rather more regretfully there's also no place in the Top Ten for the following, though much SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1164894842414823272006-12-18T17:52:00.000-08:002006-12-21T09:25:47.240-08:00"We've paid to see you, not the other way round!", came the cries from the back. Apparently many of the near-capacity crowd at the Warwick Arts Centre auditorium weren't getting much of a view of The Be Good Tanyas due to the subdued lighting they favoured, the repostes responding to a characteristically guileless explanation by Trish Klein that if they brought the lights up they wouldn't be ableSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1164213607151361922006-11-24T01:13:00.000-08:002006-11-28T09:39:06.483-08:00Slightly bizarrely, the NME has a specifically designated New Music Editor, with a silly name and an even sillier mugshot. Reporting breathlessly last week from the CMJ Music Marathon in New York, he tipped an awed readership to acts like:: Loney,dear - 'the best indie folk band nobody's heard of' - except, of course, all those who thronged The Enterprise in Chalk Farm recently where the Swedish SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1162227323789699422006-10-31T17:17:00.000-08:002006-11-06T06:03:35.816-08:00Is anybody else listening to the Benoit Pioulard record? Recently out on Kranky and readily available over here, Precis doesn't seem to be attracting a huge amount of chatter which is a bit strange considering its damn-near utter fabness. That Monsieur Pioulard is actually a young American guy named Thomas who picked the pseudonym just for the way it sounded could be deemed dubious frippery untilSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1160150226867788022006-10-07T13:02:00.000-07:002006-10-21T09:22:40.823-07:00On some days the planets are perfectPredestined to renderA perfect fit*So, this blog fetches up at the venue about five minutes before the band take the stage. It's The Gramaphone, yet another shiny modish eat-and-drink option in Spitalfields; more precisely the nice little music room downstairs. The eye-shaped performance area - floor-level blond wood 'stage' and curving concrete back wall - is SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1158779428904583932006-09-21T15:39:00.000-07:002006-09-21T10:58:17.946-07:00Hindsight is......amongst other things, a quietly fine little song by Catriona Irving recently put out by tiny London label Neednowater [go]. It's half of her vinyl 7'' debut (complete with colour-in cover & crayons) and you can listen on her MySpace. Yes yes, its another girl with a guitar but this blog can always find room for one more. And it's just the sort of thing that would have fitted SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1156773533332551322006-08-31T15:12:00.000-07:002006-09-21T08:25:35.686-07:00Concision, it's an admirable quality in any sphere and a keystone of much of the music that finds favour hereabout. Brevity isn't necessarily axiomatic nor as inherently desirable but the two naturally hang out quite a lot. They meet up, for instance, on Sorry love, the hugely enjoyable new record from international jet set duo Pipas. In the two years or so since their last ep Mark and Lupe have SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1154357722314609622006-08-11T07:52:00.000-07:002006-08-17T06:02:17.590-07:00Oh Jesus Christ almightyDo I feel alright?No, not slightly*Now this is getting just a little bit silly. Despite still seeming to regard the whole music career thing as some kind of bizarre (and not always entirely welcome) accident, the Be Good Tanyas find themselves booked to play the Royal Albert Hall, Nov 17. Serious, you cannot be, er, serious. Sadly they are, determined to put the Tanyas, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1153056425063383652006-07-16T06:26:00.000-07:002006-07-17T15:38:21.100-07:00SummertimeAnd the blogging ain't easy, let me tell youSo, there's good news and then there's stuff like this:'Those attending the Waterloo [album launch] show are in for a special treat: Steve Rauner and Adam Reichmann, late of critical darlings Nadine, will open.' Those who don't instantly appreciate why this is cause for modest rejoicing should start here. 'The pair has been writing songs sinceSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1149535182817289652006-06-05T12:19:00.000-07:002006-06-26T06:01:09.943-07:00When there's nothing going on there's nothing going on......except......signs of life from some old, old favourites. Stop-start retro-guitar-pop project The Trolleyvox vault back into the fray with their most full-on attacking sound to date. And this time it's political! Just you wait sees Andew and Beth getting out of their chairs and kicking some Republican ass. Great tune, great video. Album SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1148558271565702792006-06-01T23:47:00.000-07:002006-06-05T12:18:54.653-07:00When the talking stops...So this was going to be about something else entirely. About Centro-matic mostly; Will, Matt, Mark and Scott, Texan indie-rock wonders and truly a band among bands. About the customary excellence of their new record, Fort Recovery, cleaner, mellower but unmistakably, unshakably Cento-matic. About that sound - a fantastic industrial squeal like rusty old railway points SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1147434241262931102006-05-15T09:43:00.000-07:002006-07-17T15:48:07.930-07:00Play it again again...Like most of the rest of Britain, London got an advance preview of summertime last week and reallyrather took full use of the opportunity to put in some serious practice, loafin' and lollin' long and hard, oh yes. And in one of those coincidences that almost makes one ponder the existence of some Higher Being the perfect soundtrack for such weather had arrived just days SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1145016894239407542006-04-24T12:45:00.000-07:002006-05-03T06:05:55.426-07:00Personally, I blame Angela from the Magic Numbers. She was hardly the first, of course, but ever since that shaggy quartet's deceptively stealthy assault on Mount Pop throughout last year it seems that no-one can set off from base camp these days unless they're packing a blasted melodica. This blog recently saw five bands inside a week all of whom at some point whipped one out. This instrument's SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1144585346787807612006-04-09T04:29:00.000-07:002006-05-16T05:40:02.306-07:00Looking back to February 2004 a couple of low-key, unassuming homemade records found their way into this blog's orbit and never really left it. Two years on and their follow-ups land on the mat almost simultaneously. Such piffling synchronicity aside, Chad King and The Weepies - for tis they - shared a knack for crafting beautifully understated country-folk-pop and reallyrather is more than SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1141496423168359422006-03-04T10:00:00.000-08:002006-03-22T10:47:10.546-08:00So, where was I...Well, at the Dublin Castle one evening to see promising local talent My Sad Captains dish up a brisk and very taking set of dapper alt-jangle. OK, so leader Ed was sporting a somewhat identikit indie-geek look (think charity shop Rivers Cuomo) and they obviously had plenty of friends in the house but - and this is the very best kind of but - they've certainly got something. SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1139164783915489262006-02-09T20:26:00.000-08:002006-02-11T02:54:43.373-08:00'It's unexpected..that the first album on which all of [Jenny] Lewis's songs cry genius is the first she has recorded alone,' reckons this (not untypically slavering) review of Rabbit fur coat. Having always found the weakest moments on Rilo Kiley's albums to be those associated with band co-founder Blake Sennett, far more unexpected for reallyrather is the fact that his side project release SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1137849046160421192006-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:002006-01-23T10:16:09.266-08:00'Jealousy will get you nowhere' *Read just about any review of the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah debut in the UK print media and you'll come across the same line. This, from Friday's London Evening Standard, is fairly typical: 'In the midst of all the hysteria, remember that online hype is still hype and..[not] entirely to be believed'. That is, once again - and it just keeps on happening these days -SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1137248745382017922006-01-14T06:20:00.000-08:002006-01-16T11:31:17.636-08:00In praise of purple bears...Over the course of this blog's existence probably no release has scored a higherlength of record : length of review ratio than the 26mins of Happiness discussed here back in Feb 04. This was debut music from The Weepies, a singer-songwriter combo of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen [go]. They've since been signed to Nettwerk in North America and the follow-up to Happiness, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1135253817500870422005-12-31T19:12:00.000-08:002006-01-05T03:16:14.626-08:00Sheer favouritism...In spite of the tedious, tedious intrusion of real life, a list, there has to be a list. Browsing the zillions of Records of the Year surveys out there it becomes apparent just how much great sounding stuff has come out that this blog has simply not yet heard/haughtily ignored/been utterly oblivious to til just now/etc etc. Who is/are Testface, for instance? Absolutely no ideaSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1133267053023824512005-11-29T04:23:00.000-08:002005-12-08T11:49:51.096-08:00Joined at the hip...Fittingly, this year's post-Arcadian indiezine pacesetters Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Wolf Parade pass through town within a week of one another. Upgraded ('due to overwhelming popular demand') from the 100 Club, CYHSY subjected themselves to the unforgiving school hall acoustics of ULU where it always helps to use broad brushstrokes. As Mull Historical Society proved on SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1133184424036242822005-11-28T12:43:00.000-08:002005-11-28T05:53:47.243-08:00Listing the lists, pt.1:::indieblogheaven give a good old festive kicking to their Top 10 Turkeys...::while 50quidbloke reflects on 'the 30 songs I've most enjoyed listening to this year regardless of when they came out,' and also on the mellowing effect of having a baby about the place. (Following this line, surely nothing can stop The Innocence Mission's pending new release from topping this SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1132505524956752162005-11-22T14:35:00.000-08:002005-11-23T03:03:00.706-08:00Here's to shutting up...*It must be so much easier being in a purely instrumental band, don't you think? With one bound you're freed from the pesky pitfalls of lyric-writing (cliche, pretension, triteness) and no-one's going to be able to say - a la Bright Eyes, Joanna Newsom, Clap Your Hands, etc - 'Sorry, but I just can't get past that voice'. Also, there's probably rather less chance of any 'SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1131738758613529122005-11-11T11:40:00.000-08:002005-11-18T04:23:47.730-08:00Christmas Presents For Nice People No.1--tickets for a band they've never heard of but will almost certainly like, especially live... The Boy Least Likely To dates for '06:Brixton Windmill 28/01/2006 [?]Bar Academy Birmingham 20/02/2006Night & Day Manchester 23/02/2006Fibbers York 25/02/06The Social Nottingham 26/02/2006Bush Hall London 28/02/2006There may be more (dates, that is...)Comes With A SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1131294993939289152005-11-06T18:09:00.000-08:002005-11-09T03:31:11.666-08:00Just like Christmas in the shops those year-end lists are appearing earlier and earlier. First out of the traps is monthly freebie Loud And Quiet's top 20: counting down from five it's The Rakes, Shout Out Louds, Bloc Party, The Lucksmiths and - 'the album we could not live without in 2005' - er, Coldplay. Moving swiftly along, the first of the heavyweights also jumps the gun, Uncut deciding thatSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1129984533878727922005-10-24T22:41:00.000-07:002005-10-26T03:01:24.153-07:00The plot, as they say, ...It remains one the great mysteries of the modern age: just how did engaging D-I-Y'ers and rarely-gigging, counter-(musicbiz)-cultural popstrels The Boy Least Likely To end up landing what was presumably one of the most sought-after 'support act' slots of the year opening for Jimmy Blunt on his first major headlining UK tour? Well, an answer of sorts (the SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1128338235942488542005-10-16T03:38:00.000-07:002005-10-18T04:17:45.126-07:00You look like David BowieBut you've nothing new to tell me...is a pretty brave line to stick on your debut album. It leaps right out at you during Over and over again by New York 5-piece Clap Your Hands Say Yeah though transposing 'Byrne' for 'Bowie' might be more immediately relevant. There's more than a little Talking Heads suffusing this record (like a few others recently, the Heads having SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1127817964038938772005-09-29T15:31:00.000-07:002005-10-01T02:52:40.023-07:00Track 7 to the rescue...Elvis Costello may reckon it's generally track 4 on any given record which can be relied on to deliver the goods but for this blog, time and again, it's track 7. Public radio, the second album from Sweden's The Legends is but the latest record to bear this out. And to be honest, rarely has a track 7 been more welcome. Blimey, this is a surprise and so far not a SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1124729579910061082005-09-10T09:52:00.000-07:002005-09-12T02:45:35.143-07:00'As crisp and consistent as a Canadian forest,' that's how this blog summed the last full-length release from matt pond PA in the course of ranking it no.2 for the year '04. Swish and superfine indie-soft-rock which has lost none of it's flavour in the intervening year+. Well well, just in time to more or less coincide with the release of their new record, Emblems has finally surfaced officially SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1123862992111419602005-08-20T23:49:00.000-07:002005-08-27T05:42:20.203-07:00'Hullo clouds, hullo sky... 'Just up the hill there's a chi-chi little shop selling things like hand-knitted egg cosies and other basic everyday essentials. Talking about her stores' ethos in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine owner Cath Kidston says, 'I'm sure a therapist would tell you how I'm finding, trying to find, what I had as a child and re-creating that sense of security.' I don'tSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1123086184494709902005-08-08T09:01:00.000-07:002005-08-09T03:46:28.296-07:00Back to the future...Despite 'sounds like' comparisions being regarded in some quarters as the last resort of the lazy reviewer the debut album from Sth London combo Clor seems to be setting new records for cited influences. It'd almost be quicker to list the acts it doesn't apparently sound a bit like. For those not yet up to speed the most obvious and oft-cited antecedents are: Gary Numan, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1122395536608868612005-07-27T09:05:00.000-07:002005-07-30T05:30:51.393-07:00Slack, slacker, slackest...'Gorgeous pop...This is the perfect soundtrack for slacker melancholy, the sweet recognition of everything that's passing and the absolute inability to get up and do anything about it.' Splendid! That's from a review of the new record from Mazarin entitled We're already there. And Mr. Mazarin, Quentin 'Yes, it's my real name' Stoltzfus, gives his local paper the hows SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1120650326713615902005-07-06T04:13:00.000-07:002005-07-08T05:06:52.023-07:00'This is really amazing for us,' said Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis as she took in the sea of arms and ceiling-to-floor throng at Koko in Camden last night. 'First time we played London there were only this many there,' she explained, her arm gestures attempting to describe a not-very-many-at-all-type scenario. For the record, Jenny, 32 people were in the room that night at the Dublin Castle - this SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1119287103668577012005-06-30T10:00:00.000-07:002005-07-05T05:54:52.886-07:00One minute you're up.....the next you're sitting in the road slightly battered and bruised, staring ahead at a formerly oh-so-pretty scooter... Which has meant music-ing has been off the agenda for a while, nagging pain and general pissedoffness not being the best state in which to fairly crit new sounds. So there's a bit of a backlog which reallyrather may or may not get round to...The night SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1117736371562667242005-06-09T11:17:00.000-07:002005-06-09T08:28:48.456-07:00It's a bit selfish I know but some acts you just don't want to get any bigger. Like M. Ward, for instance. reallyrather took in two shows back-to-back last week, the first at The Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith where he topped the first of two Twisted Folk nights; an almost full-house at this glorious tiered old emporium. The big stage and serious lighting seemed to bring out a bit of the rock star SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1117535842437318362005-05-31T03:09:00.000-07:002005-06-02T03:48:33.830-07:00Reasons to be cheerful.....The Weepies in somebody's kitchen...Having managed a heroic half-dozen shows last year before retiring, knackered, sparkling Belfast/Manchester/London popsters Language of Flowers could've reconvened just about anywhere in the UK for their first '05 outing. Rather beautifully, they've opted for the Windmill in Brixton, a 15-minute scoot away for this blog - ta v. much! SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1116086530483968812005-05-14T08:49:00.000-07:002005-05-20T09:58:43.336-07:00Pop the way it should be...So, fish & chips on Brighton Pier in the full glow of the setting sun then a stroll down the shingly beach to the venue. Slippin' and crunchin' along, reallyrather soon notices four vaguely familiar dark blobs in the distance. Getting closer, one of them cradles an acoustic guitar; all of them stare out to sea as a photographer flits around. 'Tis The Magic Numbers, SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1113907575422321682005-05-02T03:33:00.000-07:002005-05-02T11:10:37.606-07:00Probably everyone has bought an album on the strength of just one track, the only one you've heard. reallyrather set a personal precedent not long ago having been seduced into buying a record purely by the title of one of it's tracks, not having heard a note. And hey, sometimes you just get lucky.Morning kills the dark by Biirdie is shaping as this blog's Spring-into-Summer soundtrack. Track one,SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1113673132349579612005-04-17T08:44:00.000-07:002005-04-19T03:00:44.196-07:00In theory, May is shaping up to be busy, busy:May 4Citizens Here and Abroad / Windmill Brixton'Shoegazing San Franciscans and their infectious indie pop propulsion.. Catchy guitar melodies, rapid drum fire, a few keyboard bleeps and tings of a xylophone' -- for £4? Yep, that'll do nicely...Citizens Here & Abroad / Appearances mp3May 9 Arcade Fire / AstoriaMay 10 Nina Nastasia / London Bush SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1112358282066059412005-04-04T03:45:00.000-07:002005-04-07T05:46:27.086-07:00A is for.....April already, crikey....and....Anamude / Pentimento (KEEP Recordings)Chewy, this one. Names like Cat Power and Polly Harvey have never (until just now) appeared in this column and for the obvious reason. Not that reallyrather is totally averse to moodiness, to 'strident', 'angular', whatever. But optimism, loveliness and a good tune generally win out round here. Not that these SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1111152082611888632005-03-19T17:09:00.000-08:002005-03-22T11:23:22.140-08:00You're winsome, you lose some...An agreeably hectic round of gigs kicked off with Hem's headline show at the Bush Hall. "A bit too winsome for me," one woman - a most un-rock, respectable-looking Hem-ish 'type' of a certain age, mark you - was overheard to remark on the way out. And you kind of knew what she meant but you also knew that she was totally WRONG! Even with a pick-up violinist SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1110124615897164282005-03-06T07:18:00.000-08:002005-03-10T05:17:33.853-08:00An evening of musical time-travel last Friday at Bush Hall courtesy of promoters Turning Worm. Headlining an eclectic bill were The Pipettes (as in The Pipettes!) who powered through another triumphant set of all the girl-group/doo-wop variations you can think of in their saucy, non-slick deadpan. And their string of pearls gets ever longer. New to reallyrather were Why did you stay (about the 'SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1108994574016470552005-02-22T22:38:00.000-08:002005-02-28T06:56:28.956-08:00Distracted.. by (familiar) music.. mostly. But here's what's swept in...Hey, snow! Coldness! Lost your old woolly gloves? Try the new single from Camera Obscura for size.. there, how snug is that?'New bands don't really come out of Belfast because of the fact that they are useless' - Think Small chats to exceptions to the rule, pop lovelies Language of Flowers...'As the sound travels from larynx SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1107866865347764092005-02-08T04:47:00.000-08:002005-02-13T12:52:44.560-08:00Warning: total supergoodness overload...March 15.. doing anything? Cancel it. Put this in your diary with a great big curly border all the way round it: Rilo Kiley headline at The Borderline. Does it get any better? Well, actually.....and reallyrather is not making this up, how about a Jenny Lewis solo record with Matt Ward - as in Matt Ward! - producing? It's happening, probably right now this SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1106918490366141832005-01-28T04:36:00.000-08:002005-02-02T07:05:16.533-08:00I didn't sleep with your brother
I only let him stay the night
I didn't sleep with your brother
I only held him very tight
..well, reallyrather for one is inclined to believe you, Tara. She being Tara Simpson, winningly unschooled singer with unabashed Belfast popheads, Language of Flowers. The first weeks of '05 finds rr catching up with stuff missed in '04 and if there's more out there as SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1105205125813035652005-01-08T08:52:00.000-08:002005-01-15T07:56:11.706-08:00OK, up periscope, let's see what's out there...
'The new Norfolk & Western record is almost done. Mixing will take place in mid January and it will be available online and at shows in March. The tentative tilte is If You Were Born Overseas', the band reports, adding that Adam & Rachel have been asked to play drums and bass (and other sounds) for M. Ward on the upcoming 2005 tours for his new SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1103819124242392802004-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:002005-01-03T08:53:03.166-08:00Looking back, looking ahead, sometimes doing both at the same time (there's clever)...
Lost or losing:
-quite appallingly, Nadine, who topped this blog's '03 year-end list, called it a day. Obviously it's the kiss of death since
-fourth-placed Wheat also teeter on the brink of oblivion. (Of that list, Per second, per second.. has endured as strongly as any.. Big pop missed by too many)
-the SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1103547904241592752004-12-20T04:32:00.000-08:002004-12-20T05:07:13.556-08:00A few year-end lists worth grazing:
Junkmedia's Top 10
The Rough Trade shop's Top 100
Stylus Magazine counts down their Top 40
And 50quidbloke recently hosted a reallyrather guest list of 04 found sounds...
It's Christmas, maybe you've noticed. Not really in the mood yet? That's OK, me neither. Maybe these one-off mp3s will help:
Minneapolis' Basement Apartment say it jangly style [site]
.SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1102957629878071772004-12-13T07:18:00.000-08:002005-02-08T10:28:29.606-08:00Ooh baby, baby...
The Magic Numbers pushed the swoon factor to the max last week at The Borderline, the last night of their 3-date residency. Lashings of those boy/girl harmonies and call & response arrangements swept another full house clean off it's feet. Setting something of a personal record, this was the fourth time reallyrather has caught the band this year, as much because it's been the SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1101216827993870082004-11-28T16:51:00.000-08:002004-11-30T11:15:33.613-08:00In Pleasantville, one of this blog's favourite films of recent years, teenagers Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon are magically time-warped back to black & white, milk & cookies, small-town America. 'Bud' is amazed and interested to be there, 'Mary Sue' decidedly not and she proceeds to wreak social havoc by injecting some late 20th-century attitude into the milieu. If she'd been put in charge SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1099935308788168632004-11-08T09:34:00.000-08:002004-11-20T05:40:42.590-08:00Like Christmas in shop windows and TV ads, year-end lists seem to appear earlier and earlier. Uncut's 'Best of '04' actually turned up in October (the 'November' ed.) and what a stinker it is. At numbers 1 & 5 is music which is at least 35 years old (Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan) while the rest of the top end is over-stuffed with downbeat gloom merchants - Tom Waits, American Music Club, Leonard CohenSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1098984026007396712004-10-28T10:19:00.000-07:002004-11-03T09:54:02.506-08:00To Lock17 for Sufjan Stevens. Since he was here primarily to promote the UK release of Michigan, had hoped he might have some of his troop in tow but alas it was the man alone. Not that he had too much difficulty holding the attention of the full house but there's only so much he could do - not being one of nature's born performers - in attempting to represent the complexities of that opus. Hey! SMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3331527.post-1098036091630264852004-10-17T09:45:00.000-07:002004-10-22T04:17:16.643-07:00So, a week in olde England, pastoral/coastal Suffolk to be precise. And the soundtrack? Of course, the songs & chants of the indigenous hill tribes of Taiwan. Mundanin Kata is one of those crossover projects - inquisitive western musician seeks out obscure folk music tradition, sits in and, frankly, jams. Always borderline-dubious in concept, cellist David Darling by and large pulls it off in hisSMchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11603692321695041170noreply@blogger.com