Live Review: Toy. Shacklewell Arms, London. 25 January 2012.

“If you like the Horrors, you’ll like Toy” was the line I was using to get someone to go with me to this gig, the second week of the band’s monthly residence at East London’s Shacklewell Arms. It worked, I got gig friends, but I think it does them a disservice.

While they have the Krautrock and psychedelic wig-out of Southend-on-Sea’s finest, Toy have something different going for them. Less posturing, less 80s synth and a more authentic 60s sound are three things, and one of those rotating kaleidoscope projections that make you feel like you’re in Performance is another. Oh and hair. This London five-piece has lots of hair. Lots of hair grooving to long, proggy tracks. We, the audience, had earned our prog stripes by enduring the support band who never announced who they were, but whose songs were so long, it made Toy look like they were three minute power pop wonders. Toy’s latest single ‘Left Myself Behind’, clocking in at nigh-on eight minutes, was a walk in the park by comparison.

The fact I’m obliged to drop about Toy according to the lore of music reviewers is that three of them were in the ill-fated Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. But you don’t really need to know that. What you do need to know is that you’ve got two weeks left to enjoy them for free at a Dalston dive bar and say you saw them before anyone else.

Words by Helen Parton (twitter)

album review: the maccabees. given to the wild. 9 january 2012. fiction records
(buy here)

i like it when a band doesn’t just sit back and rest on their laurels. releasing the same album again and again. whether throwing up three albums that you can tell are the same band but are completely different in sound, ala bloc party. or whether it is a natural progression of a band maturing. the latter is the stage at which we find the maccabees today.

listening back to colour it in now you can tell that is the album that was fun to make. whether singing about the, now famous, latchmere swimming baths or complaining about chewed pieces of lego making it tricky to build a castle the band were playing about with their sound. maybe they didn’t think they’d ever make. maybe this was just them having fun with friends. but they did make it. the album was a moderate success. certainly enough of a success to warrant a second album.

suddenly making music wasn’t just a pastime. this was their career. the perfect wall of arms was the album that set them on their way as a proper band. intelligent lyrics. soft instruments. not forgetting orlando weeks’ instantly recognisable voice.

this is of course all guess work. however it came about though, we are now enjoying given to the wild. and enjoying it we certainly are. another step forward and one that throws you around from light to dark from high to low. ‘unknow’ is like nothing they have released before, while ‘ayla’ wouldn’t feel out of place on either of their earlier records. every track is very maccabees but also very different. on ‘went away’ they even bring in vocals from elsewhere in the band. one of the white brothers i think.

what this album has done more than anything though is not make critics pleasantly surprised again. what this album has done has raised expectations in the band everywhere. even if we do a disservice to colour it in and put it down as just a fun debut, the maccabees have still released two excellent albums. that’s not a one-off fluke anymore. that’s a band with real talent.

8.5

this review originally appeared on the 405

how was your christmas? mine has been fun. present wise, i finally own a record player meaning that i can now play the piles of vinyl i’ve built up due to my complete lack of self restraint when faced with a pretty looking 12″. no longer will i have to shift uneasily or change the subject when somebody when i get home from flashback records and emma asks me why i’ve bought another record. having said that, 2011 has once again been dominated by digital music of course. your spotify account now links to your facebook, everybody has their top three played artists of the week feed through from their last.fm to twitter and you can’t move on the tube for people with a pair of beats headphones plugged into their iphone. some artists are fighting back though. it is not unusual to see a band release lovely vinyl versions of their albums with limited edition t-shirts, posters or chocolate brownies. but they still have to include that code for the digital download of course.

enough of all that though. let’s get on with the list. once again, i’ve nominated a top ten, with a single winner and then an extra addition which i simply couldn’t ignore. the 2011 apologies for just missing out go to battles, emmy the great, the kills, pj harvey, the pains of being pure at heart and last year’s winner cloud nothings.

bon iver. bon iver

he’s still a miserable fucker, but compared to for emma, forever ago this is positively rainbows & puppies. let mr iver take you on tour of his favourite places while he sits alone in a vets. (buy here)

girls. father, son, holy ghost

their ep was one of my favourites of 2010 and this full length is a worthy successor. in a year when the beach boys announced they’re reforming for 2012, girls released an album that any californian worth their salt would be proud off. (buy here)

the horrors. skying

i’m still at a loss as to how a band can improve so immeasurably (actually, you can measure it. only in terms of back to the future though). still debating whether it’s as good as primary colours, but who would i have thought they’d be anywhere near this list four years ago? (buy here)

lykke li. wounded rhymes

oh lykke. we all love lykke. her second album ticked all the boxes about growing up and while not as instantly pickupable (real word) as her first is far more accomplished overall. (buy here)

m+a. things.yes

this was the album that i could just put on this year and drift away. what a a truly beautiful album. (buy here)

metronomy. the english riviera

what isn’t to love about this album? nothing. the perfect advert for tourism of the english coast. (buy here)

times new viking. dancer enquired

there are lots of bands producing that lo-fi sound that i love so at the moment. the greatest example of the year though came not from a teenage genius in his bedroom, but a five-album veteran three piece. (buy here)

tom vek. leisure seizure

so excited i was about the release of this album that i dedicated a day to tom vek day. any other year he would have probably walked off with the winner’s badge. tom vek is back in a big way. (buy here)

yuck. yuck

the first new album i listened to of the year. a great start it was too. especially for a sonic youth and cajun dance party fan like myself. (buy here)

so, who wins? if you’ve been an avid reader of this blog over the year i’m sure you already know. a couple of years ago nobody knew whether they were a swedish collective or an east london teen. it transpired that they were in fact a guy who was already established as solo artist in his own right, and a girl who was a music journalist – and had in fact been asked to cover the band before people knew their true make up. i’ve seen them over a dozen times live and i hoped the album would live up to the high standards they’d set. it more than did.

summer camp. welcome to condale

summer camp introduced us to the fictional american town of condale. with teen crushes, a burgeoning rock band and ultimately death, welcome to condale and the accompanying fanzine takes us through an americana dream. it isn’t just the story that makes this album so good though. elizabeth has the sort of voice that is recognisable and easy to listen to. jeremy knows more about electronic instruments and how to use them than i know about cheese. the songs have more variety than early releases did and straight away remove the risk of becoming bored of the sound. this is a worthy winner. as an aside, if i was writing a list of my live performances of the year, i fancy summer camp’s gig at efes would top that too. (buy here)

alex turner. submarine original songs

i couldn’t complete the list without giving a shout out to alex turner’s soundtrack to submarine as well. my favourite film of the year was also my favourite soundtrack. just six tracks long, but it was pretty much all i listened to for a period earlier in the year. superb songs, brilliantly performed. (buy here)

in case you’ve ignored all of my subtle hints to buy the albums mentioned, you can listen to them all on this handy spotify playlist.

live review: atp, nightmare before christmas. butlins, minehead. 9-11 december 2011.

And the live tweeting of #atpnbc begins. In fact, it begins with a coach transfer between Taunton and Minehead

— Tim Brown (@sockformation) December9, 2011

when i first posted a review based solely on my tweets it was basically a lazy way to review field day a couple of years ago. i developed the idea and wireless 2011 was what i perceived was the pinnacle. now, with the ability to embed tweets (you may have always been able to do this but i’ve only just found out), we’re taking it next level motherfuckers. you can reply, retweet and favourite. go fill your boots. it seems to slow down the site a bit though, so you’ll have to click to read… (more…)

if i was in the habit of tipping bands for 2012, san cisco would be right up there. how fucking catchy is this? i think i even prefer it to ‘golden revolver‘, which i loved (loved so much in fact that i almost used capital letters there). seriously, what a song. i suppose you could compare them to metronomy in that this is very simple but effective pop. also they have a female drummer who sometimes sings. if you delve a bit further into the band though, you’ll find that there is a whole lot more to them than just an australian metronomy and i look forward to seeing what route they take. i also really like the lead singer’s shirt. i think i might be a little chunky to pull it off though as it looks quite thin and has a straight cut.

live review: summer camp. efes pool bar, london. 17 november 2011.

i could write about how great it was to see such a huge crowd. i could write about the brilliance of jeremy and elizabeth kicking off with an acoustic version of ‘better off without you’ while walking through the crowd. i could write about the girl who i was convinced was about to vomit on me throughout the gig. i could write about how much i want to find out where william got his shirt from. i could write about the second acoustic performance of the night for ‘losing my mind’. i could write about red stripe for £3. i could write about the superb company. i could write about summer camp’s rendition of r kelly’s ‘ignition’ during the karaoke after party. i could write about how this must be the eleventh or twelfth time i’ve seen summer camp at least and this was also the best.

i think the best way to tell you about just how good this gig was though, is by telling you that i fought through my hangover on friday morning to buy tickets to their scala gig next year because i am so convinced that every single person in that crowd would be doing the same thing and i cannot miss out.

album review: m+a. things.yes. 7 november 2011. monotreme records
(buy here)

every now and again an album crops up that it is just impossible to stop listening to. in these days of itunes and ipods (and other bits of kit not made by apple) it is simple to forget that you’re on the third listen in rotation of an album, and when you realise you don’t mind one jot. that has to be a good sign that the music is doing something right.

things.yes is one such album. whether that’s due to it being less than 3/4 hour long, or because the tracks pull together in such a way that you’re quite happy to drift away listening to it is unclear. one thing is for sure though, m+a have some serious talent coming out of their italian fingers. just out of their teens, the duo have not been shy about admitting they have been heavily influenced by the music they listen to. air and sigur Ros are the obvious comparisons, and sounds of the avalanches and even early does it offend you, yeah? crop up as well.

this is m+a’s album though. they’ve put in the time and they’ve stuck to their ideals to make an album that they themselves would listen to. there is the perfect mix of samples and a cohesion with both their voices that is rare and hard to force. it’s dreamy, it’s mysterious, it’s unusual, it’s brilliant.

the cover art of the album is fucking gorgeous as well. so simple and so perfect. just like the album inside.

9

this review originally appeared on the 405

hello. it’s been a while. how are you? i’ve decided to put some real effort into this again. a little undecided about the exact direction, but i’d like to go back to the days when i wrote about new music loads. i’m sure there will still be the odd album and live review and i’ll probably include anything i write for other sites on here as well, but the main aim will be new music. yeah. decided now. oh, and i’ll still post a load of videos. mainly because they take about two minutes to do and are an easy post. i thought as a bit of a welcome back (in addition to the amazing competition i’ll be posting either later tonight or tomorrow morning) i’d quickly tell you what i think about some of the albums that have come out recently.

sitting comfortably? then we’ll begin.

feist. metals. (buy here)
she’s fucking good isn’t she. she’ll be touring early next year and i want to go. feist at the albert hall? that’ll be amazing. 8

justice. audio, video, disco. (buy here)
brilliant. not as ipod friendly as † but this will sound pretty awesome live. 9

summer camp. welcome to condale. (buy here)
can you imagine if this had been rubbish. two years of stalking the two of them totally wasted. fortunately it isn’t. perfect. seriously. i love the little town of condale the’ve put together and i want to be brian krakow. 10

los campesinos! hello sadness. (buy here)
recently there was a twitter hashtag game of #lessexcitingbandnames. my favourite? “los campesinos.” i found that fucking hilarious. only challenged by “the bernard matthews band”. 8

yeah, so i’ve pretty much only chosen albums i really, really like. live with it. anyway, stay tuned for a competition coming up soon. i’m not going to give it away, but if you want to see yuck live in london at the end of the month, you’ll want to enter.

live review: mayhem. rockheim, trondheim, norway. 18 october 2011.

ed note:i know this isn’t the usual type of band that you’d see reviewed on here, but come the fuck on. this is mayhem. they’re proper legendary. what’s more, this was in their home country of norway. i haven’t checked it out, but i’m pretty sure this must be a uk exclusive. let’s assume it is.

it is 17 years since de mysteriis dom sathanas, the album that, in the wake of mayhem’s murders, suicides and church burnings, put black metal on an obscure part of the northern european map.

atilla csisar, the norwegian band’s hungarian front man looks like he’s had a few goulashes since then, but still puts his sometimes operatic voice though the tonsil cheese grater. he’s daubed in bloody-faced corpse paint and black cape, and performs to the skull he holds in his hand. the noose which hangs from the high ceiling looks tight around his neck. he sways around the stage, pulling the rope yet tighter on his throat as he fights imaginary demons with some kind of pissed-up martial art. at his best he’s like a drunk boxing-announcer, vomiting sandpaper onto a broken microphone.

beside him, the band’s living co-founder and bassist, necro butcher, still shirtless and buff after all these years, allows himself the occasional smile on the stage while the two session guitarists thrash with the black metal look of pained determination. at the back of the stage, the band’s iconic mentalist drummer, hellhammer, hammers away with artful violence.

today’s black metal bands work hard with professionals to achieve the genre’s signature unprofessional sound. mayhem practically invented it with that 1994 album. but mayhem’s core members are regarded as atistes and the trondheim club, rockheim, has the best acoustics in northern norway. (it is, says the roadie, effectively a large recording studio.) so the dose of unprofessionalism comes from a weird shaky-cam, back-stage interview with the band after the gig, broadcast onto the club’s big screen. csisar doesn’t understand the norwegian questions so just growls drunkenly into the microphone to the audience’s delight.

hellhammer is pissed off, he tells me later, that the pig’s heads, which the band like to fling at the audience, did not arrive in time for the gig. the crowd don’t seem to mind. a huge, grimy, fat guy at the front of the club punches nearby strangers in the arm in what he imagines is a black metal approximation of a pill-head hugging a stranger in an early 90s warehouse. one guy faints. a young girl, no older than 18, with coiffured hair and fashionable jeans, wears bright yellow ear plugs. she is far too hot for the ugly, raw sound coming from the stage, and the sweaty headbangers stinking up the floor.

she may not even have been alive when varg vikernes, mayhem’s then session bassist, murdered band-mate euronymous in a frenzied, 32-stab, knife attack in 1994 – nor even when hellhammer released the album later that year with the murdered and murderer playing together on the same record. she was no more than an idea when dead, the band’s aptly-named front man blew his brains out in euronymous’s flat in 1993. in 1992, when vikernes was burning down 12th century churches, the young reveller’s dad was probably just plucking up the courage to feel up her mum-to-be in a shitty trondheim cinema. and her parents had probably not even met when necrobutcher and euronymous started the band in 1984.

but when csisar dedicates a song from de mysteriis sataanis to dead, the young girl headbangs enthusiastically with the rest. even if her hair doesn’t move very much.

words by mark lewis (twitter)

live review: pete and the pirates. scale, london. 4 october 2011.

as the sweat dripped off the end of my fringe (not my most ladylike look), a couple of things struck me about this pete and the pirates gig 1) i should really have taken my jacket off before going into the mosh pit, 2) my fringe seriously needs a trim and most importantly, why don’t more people know how good this reading five-piece are? well obviously the full to capacity crowd here at the scala do. i thought it’d all be teenage (and one, ahem, thirtysomething) girls swooning over pete, pete, tommy, david and johnny but no, pete and the pirates have seemingly made a huge impression with the big, burly bald blokes you usually find at kasabian gigs too, judging by tonight’s audience.

the crowd swelled and pogoed for the singles off one thousand pictures, the band’s second album: come to the bar, winter 1 and united. the latter is an undeniable indie pop classic: even people who don’t know anything else about the band are, well, united in their love of it. re-release it please stolen recordings! but keep the accompanying cat-themed video, that’s ace.

pete and the pirates continue the british songwriting tradition of putting irresistible melodies beneath bittersweet tales of fumbling, stumbling relationships set out by the likes of squeeze, buzzcocks and blur before them. downtempo numbers such as half moon street and washing powder show how pete and the pirates have progressed in songwriting terms from the simplistic perkiness of earlier songs such as mr understanding. my only gripes with this performance was a lack of inter-song banter (i like my frontmen flirtier, chattier and cockier) and that it was all over in just over three quarters of an hour. with any luck, this uk tour will propel this clever, likeable bunch to much greater things.

words by helen parton (twitter)