Old Age Hipster*

Lifestory: Monologue

2012-01-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

Kevin Devine - UK Shows

2012-01-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

Kevin Devine & The Goddam Band hit the UK for a string of shows next month. Seriously looking forward to these...

21.02 - Kingston The Cricketers
23.02 - Manchester Night & Day
24.02 - Southampton Joiners
25.02 - Bristol Thekla
26.02 - Oxford Jericho Tavern
27.02 - London Borderline
28.02 - Leeds Brudenell Social Club
29.02 - Glasgow King Tuts

If you haven't yet checked out Kevins latest album there is a stream here:

Between The Concrete And Clouds by Kevin Devine

Some records of note:

2012-01-26T15:42:00.001-08:00

You would be well advised to check some of these out soon:

- Katie Malco : Home
- Josh Garrells : Flood Water
- We Are Trees : Boyfriend
- Xtrmgr : Dreams
- Halc : Pixel Revolt
- Pilots & Errors : July

That is all!

Yr Heart Isn't A Heart

2011-12-13T04:09:00.001-08:00

To The Treetops

2011-12-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

So finally the rest of the world has caught up and those of us in the know from early doors are feeling rather smug about the ongoing ascent of Team Me from indie hopefuls to bona fide pop stars.

The bands new album To The Treetops is only just out and has seen the guys touring almost relentlessly all over Europe (honing their live chops in the process) with their Polyphonic Spree / Andrew Bird hybrid.

A real step on from the bands debut EP - this record has been self produced and an exceptional job it is too - the album is hyperactive and detailed to the n'th degree - synths, strings, guitars, keyboards, pianos, masses and masses of communal voices, stretching the songs out and giving space to every inch of colour and life contained in the records ten tracks.

They say youth is wasted on the young but Team Me are having none of it - filling every nook and cranny of the mix with youthful abandon and probably sweating their asses off on stage every night as well!

Here's a great video from the bands recent set on Norwegian TV show Lydverket

Visit the band on the web: teamme.no

My shaky hands

2011-11-27T08:55:00.001-08:00

Recorded in an old farmhouse, Old Crowns self titled debut album has a gorgeously homemade feel to it that evokes images of whisky fuelled singalongs on a creaking old porch - extended weed addled barroom jams blasting out across the darkness.

Absolutely loving this right now and would urge you to check it on for free on bandcamp as soon as you can.

Old Crowns on Bandcamp

Twenty Twelve

2011-11-27T08:42:00.001-08:00

The folks at Lazy Acre Records have just released a little sampler of some of their 2012 roster, lots of interesting stuff on here, well worth a listen:

Dry The River

2011-09-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Epic stuff. More to follow when I have had chance to listen to a little more of this band but for now this - the bands recent single is absolutely stunning.

The War on Drugs

2011-09-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

I realise I am a little late to the party with The War on Drugs; I know that many across the blogosphere have been expounding what a gem this Philidelphia based (i think) band are for some time.

And to be honest it took me a couple of tracks to fully get on top of exactly what was happening here - the record (Slave Ambient) gets off to a fairly generic indie-country beginnings with twangy guitars and shuffling acoustic guitars motoring along all very pleasantly, but only about 4 songs in - as the band hit on a chance opening in the space time continuum do things get really interesting, bolting on a skyscraping wash of ambient scree and widescreen drone to devastating effect.

If that long an horribly unpunctuated sentence seemed weird then its an emotion very similar to listening to the album - especially while travelling - like the head spinning rush of a rollercoaster assent or the stomach wrenching giddiness of a turbulent flight; Its a neat tricj that helps to hammer otherwise ordinary songs into a state of otherworldliness which sets them apart epically from their colleagues in the nu-americana trenches

Out now on Secretly Canadian.

Emphemetry - So Long Magic Helper

2011-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I must confess that Emphemetry are a band I know zero of aside from the tracks that make up the bands (/songwriters?!) debut album A Lullaby Hum For Tired Streets.

Evoking a range of daybreaking landscapes (you can picture this soundtracking early morning walks along dramatic clifflines) across its tracks the album comprises a blissful blend of rural folk - all thrumming finger picked guitars - and totally smacked out ambient tracks with layers of luxurious synths blending a beguiling atmosphere that serves the stripped back acoustic numbers wonderfully well.

You can get hold of the record over on bandcamp (I believe you can name the price) and I would urge you to do so. Its been absolutely gorgeous little treat for the last few days.

There is nothing but chemistry here

2011-09-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

I've skirted around Tall Ships for a while now and have to confess that after being a little underwhelmed with the early demos I had heard had somehow managed to miss the following ep's that have been getting everyone from Huw Stephens skywards very excited.

Anyway finally catching up by way of my recent subscription to emusic the recent There is nothing but chemistry here ep is a headspinning mix of electro, post rock, polyrhythmic guitar spiralling into demonic breakdowns before bubbling away on a wave of a sea shanty, lost atop the crashing waves of feedback and riffs.

Utterly uncategorizable and completely bonkers its kinda like if the youthmovies had made Ores into a concept album. That kind of wierd. And that kind of awesome.

Into it. Over It.

2011-09-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

An infuriating bandname to try and explain to anyone but a wonderful act none the less. IiOi are about to release a new compendium of tracks that have been released over the last few years across a series of low key compilations and split singles with bands such as Castavet to name but one.

Part travel diary, part ever shifting monologue the tracks on the album are all named after various places on the tour map and the musical feel of these new found territories seep their way into the recordings as well - the gonzo punk of Washington DC and folky Nashville TN for two serving as excellent examples.

It will be available in the UK via Pink Mist. And he is on tour now. Check the Pink Mist site (<--) for more details.

The Curse

2011-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that Norwegian band Bellman do well its the crashing crescendos of emphatic orchestration that seems to coat everything mainman singer songwriter Arne does in a melancholic sepia colour; lashings of cello and violins ensuring that every sinew of the songs on the bands new album The Curse is all dialled in for maximum emotional impact.

Best encapsulated by the pseudo James Bond strings of I suppose or the epic Sigur Ros on Ritalin opening of the albums title track, this is a set of songs that never fail to leave an affecting swoon as their dying embers drift out of the dustiest corners of the stereo.

At its heart though the heart of Bellman seems to be eternally broken and the tenderness shown in the likes of When Im Awake lend a grandiose gravity to proceedings and makes sure that the commercial leap this album no doubt takes is rooted in the emotional connection we all felt in the first place for this norwegian songwriter.

You can get hold of the bands new album here

††† (Crosses)

2011-09-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

So I am going to confess up front that as of yet I havent worked out how (other than a copy and paste) to type the symbol that names Chino Moreno's latest extra curicular project CROSSES.

Whilst representing a slight departure from the hellish soundscapes that made up Moreno's recent Team Sleep project, this bands opening salvo comes in the form of a free download ep which showcases a dynamic range of space age electronica complete with broken down drum loops, sub sonic bass and grinding guitars pitched tastefully against a backdrop of hi tech gadgetry - giving the impression of this sounding for all the world like its beamed in from another galaxy as some kind of cultural swap with the paranoid inhabitants of BC-97662-??!#1

Wherever the fuck that is. Well worth a listen none the less.

The Understanding

2011-09-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

A great little video from Brooklyns finest Jones Street Station:

Parts

2011-09-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

When a band comes with a disclaimer that they were arrested at their first ever show (in what I really hope for the sake of my imagination was a very sweaty little rock basement in the bands native Barcelona) for being too loud.

With that in mind it doesnt take a great leap for me to tell you that the band deal in thrashy two piece instrumental rock - conjuring a toxic sludge that fans of anyone from Royal Trux to Kyuss to DFA1979 and even the more open minded Queens fans out there - will find much to love.

Guitars and bass scuzz along colliding in ugly fashion with Animal from the Muppets thrashing away on the drums. When I say its the sound of a tank crashing through a plate glass window its most definitely a compliment. Immense.

Bi-Oscar by Parts

A belated Happy record store day!

2011-05-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

This set was specially recorded for Record Store Day a few weeks back and features two of our favourite musicians - Uno Moller and Marius from Team Me - super simple and simply beautiful. Nothing else to add.

Heads up #78 - Michael Kiwanuka

2011-05-09T14:41:00.001-07:00

I take great pride at being one of the first if not the first blog to post about a wonderful London based songwriter called Michael Kiwanuka. At the time - headspinning in a whirlwind of folky soulful blues - I predicted imminent greatness, and I have to confess I have been impatiently awaiting for the first recorded output since the bedroom demos that Catapulted him onto some serious radars.

Out on Communion record Michael debut single; the "tell me a tale ep" actually took me by surprise to start with - more than anything with it's widescreen nature - with no restrictions on budget or studio, Kiwanuka (along with producer Paul from The Bees whos studio committed these songs to doubtlessly vintage reel to reel tape) have created a lush orchestration of sound to coat Michals rich, soulful vocals - all wafting zithers and sweeping strings that feels like there's no way in the world that this record could have been made in 2011.

Rich and organic and bursting at every seam with a wide eyed confidence that is somehow at odds with the humble unassuming man behind the voice, it's a bold opening salvo; one that defies any contemporary reference you could put against it - already this feels accomplished enough to sit alongside names like Marvin Gaye with no shred of irony or overstatement.

For all the new found depths recently added to the KIwanuka sound, the vocals still sound most affecting on third track "worries walk beside me", tremulously woven around a Spartan guitar line and adding weight to the notion of the man being equally at home within the blues as within lush soul.

Expectation duly raised ever further, then debut album which I believe is being recorded as we speak should be something really special.

The unstoppable International dream beat

2011-03-28T18:33:00.001-07:00

This is the second album of a band called adebissi shank

So while I may be a little late to this particular party (the shanks second album was released during the damp squib of summer 2010) that doesn't take anything away from the unrestrained joy that comprises the sprawling (mainly instrumental) tracks contained within.

Opener international dream beat for one opens the album in a whirlwind of almost frog like noises squeezed from what can safely be assumed are well abused guitars before hailing through a blitzkrieg of instrumental rock with an almost fan fare like chorus and a series of uber melodic poppy synth lines.

Throughout the remaining tracks the watermarks remains remarkably high throughout with the decision to expand the bands initial template of strict desert dry guitar riff a thons with a more varied musical template taking in elements of daft punk robot rock and even a few computerised lyrical interludes as well.

Instrumental rock is notoriously difficult to keep the attention at times but it has to be said the sheer scale and ambition of the songwriting here lifts this band above the underground status they currently occupy and earmarks them as a genuine treasure to hold close to our battered 'relationship of command' Tshirts.

Brutally Loud, Awesome Fun

2011-02-03T06:13:00.000-08:00

There is nothing (literally NOTHING) I could add to that sentence to talk about this band:

Immense fun

Pull Yourself Together and Fall in Love With Me

2011-02-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

Proving there is no end in sight to the current wave of stunning Norwegian releases right now (hot on the heels of excellent albums by Harrys Gym and Einar Stray for two) Oslos Cold Mailman release their debut single shortly in the form of the excellently titled "Pull Yourself Together and Fall in Love With Me".

Abtly dubbed by their label as "a stoned Erland Oye fronting the shins and bashing out Postal Service covers" (as bizarre an image as it is true) the band play a beautifully judged blend of indie pop and folksy loveliness with just not the slightest clue of just how good they are.

An album follows in March - on this evidence it will be one to watch out for.

Find out more here

What Was Ours Cant Be Yours

2011-01-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

I first heard about Harrys Gym in a lift a few years back - the editor from one of the more serious musical publications in the UK was waxing lyrical to our mutual friend in the lift about this band Harrys Gym who were like a Kid A era Radiohead - all fuzzy basslines and the like.

And while I later came to see some of the obliqueness of Radioheads later work in The Gyms debut album, the guys have easily sidestepped those comparisons on new album "What Was Ours Cant Be Yours" and moved into ever more experimental waters with stunning effect.

The new record is overrun with glitchy highlights but Old Man (see below) represents something of a highlight for me with its waves of euphoric synths giving the skeletal backdrop an ether like quality wrapping itself around the vocals throughout. For a band on a major label anywhere in the world to commit to such a daring record is a great pleasure to see and points a way forward for some of the more conservative British labels renowned for showing infinitely less faith in its crop of its than their european cousins.

A high watermark for sure in terms of Norwegian music in 2011 - with the shortlist for Nordic music prize 2010 just announced, dont be suprised to see this record showing up in the list next year.

Finally - a UK release for Bellman

2011-01-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

So Bellman (who I first blogged about on here about 2 years ago after seeing the band live at 2009's ByLarm Festival.) have finally gotten a UK release lined up with the scando specialists Lazy Acre Records.

The band tread a beautiful line of genuine pop nouse and sigur ros-y bombast and none more so than on the lead track from the bands new EP Spaceship! Move Slow. Its got everything that makes Bellman distilled into four minutes of dreamy pop, hushed acoustic guitars and sweepin strings mixed in with an understated sense of melodic melancholy.

The five tracks that make up the bands new EP all tread a similarly heartfelt pattern and leave you with an impression of some immensely talented musicians creating an accessible entrance into a musical territory so long held the preserve of serious looking Icelandic types.

Get hold of the EP as a free download now over here

Freeblood

2011-01-08T08:14:00.001-08:00

I have to preface this note with a disclaimer that I know absolutely nothing of this band outside of the three minute video below but they are the first band I've seen in a while that struck me as genuinely cool.

The band are freeblood who on cursory glance of google appear to be signed to DFA which makes sense - theres a lot of NYC in those stuttery stocatto basslines but by twining them around looped vocals and some interesting harmonial interplay theres something really fresh about the whole thing - a suprise given some of the obvious influences and collaborators on show here.

Anyway this clip was recorded on From The Basement (which I've blogged about before on here) and is a really cool little clip actually. Having now done my exciteable reaction post I'm now off to find out more on the bands myspace. See you there?

Laeto return

2011-01-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

Scottish post rockers Laeto return with a new album (the imaginatively titled IIIrd) and blisteringly good it is.

There are lashings of all kinds of great post rock bands littered across the tracks here - Secondsmile, Youthmovies, Redjetson - but while it does feel occasionally retro there is no doubt that these are forward thinking types and as waves of thrashing guitars wrap around themselves before bursting in firework showers of glistening arpeggios you cant help buy get swept away in the whole thing.

You can get this record for free by visiting the bands website and I would strongly recommend you get hold of it as soon as you can. Top stuff.

Long overdue...

2010-12-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

Shit so logging in I notice that its been two months since I last posted on here... thats terrible... I can only apologise.

In the meantime there has been much musical to fall in love with over the last few months and I will be catching up with a bunch of them over the next few days now I have a little more spare time on my hands.

First up I wanted to share with you a great little record that I had the privelige of seeing live a few weeks back. The record in question is the new album from Einar Stray. I first came across Einar Stray a couple of years back when he sat back to me at a piano and freewheeled his way through a wicked piano led set. A few months later I was in a bar with Sjur from the Little Hands of Asphalt who was the producer of Strays debut album. "I was talking to some friends back home [members of other bands] and we all decided he's going to be bigger than all of us" before adding that "although an album is going to be years". Note was taken and duly forgotten.

Until when on a trip to Oslo a couple of weeks back I happened upon a set by Mr Stray at Revolver Bar - the old songs "arrows" included still raised goosebumps but the real highlights were the cuts from the new album which mark him out as THE songwriter to watch in 2011. The album is a swirling mix of pianos and achingly pretty strings all forming a kind of piano led post rock which is as startling and head spinning as it is beautiful and evocative...

Its out next year on Spoon Train and you should really get involved. Heres that track Arrows but yu can get hold of a free track from the new album by visiting Spoon Train Audios Website

07:OH:03

2010-10-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

So we dont often hand the reigns of the Old Age Hipster to these young uns but as a rare exception Juanita McGowen sent us a musical postcard from Coventry of all places...

Vocalist with provenance in the region, John Garrison, treated an audience at Coventry’s 07:OH:03 with a rare and personal acoustic session. He sang beautifully rendered songs from his new album, Destination, as well as fan favourites from his days fronting Budapest.

From the stripped down, note sustained “So Close” and “Rendezvous” to the more intense and passionate “Let’s Run”, Garrison entranced the packed out Esquire’s Coffee House. With a mixture of cheeky teasing and humourous banter, he made you feel like a part of a close-knit circle of friends. He even managed to poke a bit of fun at one of his many projects, touring with James Blunt.
The simplicity of his songs coupled with its teetering on the fine line of adult mainstream singer songwriter stuff with nuances of alternative were just plain soothing and enjoyable. Can’t fault it and audiences can see him in the region again soon.

Preceding Garrison was a female singer songwriter from Norwich by the name of Jess Morgan. She has just returned from Norway, where she recorded her 2010 release All Swell. With her bohemian dress, fiery red hair and dimpled smile, Morgan exuded this happy hippy style complete with “Have a nice day” smiley sticker plastered on her acoustic guitar.

Her travels have put a major stamp on her musical style and she opened with an appropriate “The Travelin’ Song” which had influences of Americana. I even heard a slight homage to Stealers Wheels in the tune. She has a true essence for storytelling running through her songs - the tale of her grandfather in “Workhouse”, a broken heart in “At Sea” and the emotional epic of what I imagine is a fictional, gypsy family in “Thompson Family Singers”. The lyrical genius of Bob Dylan in the sweet feminine package of Joni Mitchell is the quickest way I could describe Jess Morgan and she won over the crowd effortlessly.

07:OH:03’s house performer and Coventry’s own, Stylusboy opened the evening with a crowd warming and at times jaunty seven song set. With his trusty sidekick and angelic vocalist, Rachel Grisedale, Stylusboy sang wistful and soothing tracks like that of “Beyond the Flags” and an acoustic arrangement of Ellie Goulding’s “Starry Eyed”. Many of his set that night are featured on his upcoming ep, planned to be released in 2011.

Stylusboy’s songs are primarily based on those moments in life we all have experienced at some point - glimpses of everyday events or those once in a lifetime moments but he manages to fit them into gentle melodies and surreal lyrics. “Dave’s Song” is about the moment he realised a close friend didn’t have long to live and “Jigsaw” was just about him noticing a rogue puzzle piece on the pavement one afternoon while walking about town. Stylusboy is inspirational and brings a smile to your face.

07:OH:03 is held the second Saturday of every month at Esquire Coffee House in Coventry.

The Buildings then the Trees

2010-10-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

Wish Built To Spill could discover a hitherto unhinted metrosexual side and start coming off all soppy once in a while? Well never fear my friends for Sjur Lysied (he of cheekbones and Little Hands of Asphalt fame) returns with a new EP from his other band MONZANO.

Monzano throw unabashed joy at the wind and ride on its billowing coat-tails until awaking in a colder, darker side of town - a place of cold glacial guitars shimmering in night light, a beery haze of swooning electronics leaking from a nearby indie bar and begins to trudge home through the snow with a cheerully boozy bonhomie.

There are shards of James Mercers eye for lyrical details nestled in among these bookish indie pop songs and a general sense of knowing for the understated pop hook that you cant help but be beguiled by.

Like the librarian you find yourself gaining an inexplicable crush on - look past the NHS glasses and the knitwear and theres something kinda sexy in there.

Dad Rocks!

2010-10-08T02:42:00.000-07:00

Not content with readying a new Mimas album for release shortly - frontman Snævar Njáll Albertsson is also releasing a solo ep eunder his Dad Rocks! Pseudonym.

Wrapping some quirky lyrics around typically spidery guitar lines and a general knack of writing catchy songs its an interesting take on the singer songwriter canon - veering from intricate single guitar lines to sweeping almnost Flaming Lips-y kinda fare...

It soundtracked the best part of ol hippies week off last week - I would heartily suggest you do the same next week. Its out on BSM

the next chapter...

2010-09-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Theres something pretty quirky about Chapter 24 - take lead off single Down In The Sea - starting off with a Troggsy garage rock beat moving through a rifftastic verse and chorus before moving into a kind of afro tinged breakdown before stomping back on the fuzzbox for another chorus before drifting back off into an outro laced with folky acoustic guitars... sound bizarre?

Well wait for second track (on the bands new 7" single) which moves in a more hyperactive blur of surfed out guitars - tinny shards of distorted guitars whirling in a maelstrom of reverb before a hyperactive drum workout propels the track along to a breathless finale...

Utterly exhausting but in a very good way.

New Talons album nearly ready!!

2010-09-23T03:41:00.001-07:00

Welll we've mentioned them a couple of times on here recently but the excellent news from this morning is that On the 15th of November Big Scary Monsters will release 'Hollow Realm', the debut album from Talons. Comprising of 8 brand new tracks, the record was written as a whole piece of music and combines all of the elements we've come to love from the young instrumentalists, from the beautiful, dual violin lead highs to the crushing, riff-laden lows. Recorded by former Forward Russia vocalist Tom Woodhead at a remote location in Wales earlier this year, the tracklisting is as follows:

1. St Mary Will Be The Death Of Us All
2. Peter Pan
3. In The Shadows Of Our Stilted Homes
4. An Expected Future Event
5. Iris
6. Impala
7. Great Railroads
8. Hollow Depth

The band also play the following shows in September/October and will be announcing a full UK tour for November, to coincide with the release...

29.09 - Norwich Arts Centre (w/ This Will Destroy You)
30.09 - London Camden Underworld (w/ This Will Destroy You)
03.10 - Leeds Weekender @ The Well (w/ Hot Club, Johnny Foreigner, Gallops and more)
18.10 - London Camden Barfly (headline w/ support from Brontide, Hold Your Horse is, Run Walk!)
21.10 - Cardiff SWN Festival @ Y Fuwch Goch (BSM showcase w/ Mimas, Tall Ships, Stagecoach and Dad Rocks)
22.10 - Leeds Brainwash Festival (w/ Melt Banana, Dosh, Chickenhawk and loads more)

Here a bit of a treat for you - a free track taken from the record to check out: Epic. If you like it you can download it from here for free right now!

Talons - Peter Pan by bsmrocks

Come live the life

2010-09-19T05:20:00.000-07:00

I have to confess that after being introduced to K's Choice by way of a friend of a friend in the form of their melancholy Almost Happy album they completely went off my radar. In fact they went off everyones radar however their return with new album Echo Mountain (their first in seven years) has bought them bang back to my stereo and I would advise yours too.

Leading from the off with new single Come live the life the album is a joy of three and four minute power pop tunes sprinkled with some beautiful acoustic moments. Soundling a lot like Teenage Fanclub in a lot of places, some cutesy boy / girl vocals also throw some new shades onto the format (a good thing given this records double 2 CD length) and remind us of everything that made us fall in love with them in the first place.

How well such traditionally indie fair will survive when faced with a double header of baggy trousered emos and a Doherty spearheaded grot rock revival is another matter. For now though just check out the new single and enjoy some perfect power pop songwriting.

Started With A Heartbeat

2010-09-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

If you - like me - have been feeling almost a little underwhelmed by the new Arcade Fire record, never fear for a new band of waif like young men is here to whip up some enthusiastically anthemic indie rock anthems. They are Escapists and this is my favourite song of the year right now.

A bewildering mix of scuzzy US tinged alternative rock and a uniquely British way with a tune if Win Butler had grown up in rural Berkshire this would be the end result. Already a fiercely regarded live band, the sound of the demos over on the bands myspace would appear to be the bones of one hell of a debut album in the making.

Escapists - Started with a heartbeat by lazyacrerecords

Black Soul.

2010-09-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

I posted on Black Soul Strangers a little while back now and it was a genuine pleasure to see the bands full length debut album arrive in the post a week or so back. Luckily for those that have been tracking the band for a little while now all of the elements that made the band so thrilling in the firsty place are delightfully all present and correct.

The band still drape a heavy dose of 80s murk across their sleek bullet of a sound - all jagged edges of guitars and ultra reverbed vocals - but under the titanium veneer a beating heart resides, grounding the skyscraping mix and providing some genuine grit and emotion to proceedings - its kind of akin to Refused playing My Bloody Valetine and its a genuinely thrilling debut album.

Shoulder to the wheel

2010-09-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

Weirdly I remember initially intrigued by Ruarri Joseph around the time of his debut album - the exotic name and likenings to a new Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly as Q told me - however anyone who didnt see those initial reviews through to actually listening could be rather suprised by listening to Josephs new album - (especially if the aforemention q-ers were using DUckworths own ill advised electronic forays).

Recalling rustic folk stalwarts like David Rord and Josh Ritter, the album Shoulder to the wheel, turns in a seriously classy set of country tinged folk pop; all wheezing harmonica and shuffling acoustic guitars mingling with twinking pianos and softly plucked banjos.

Highlight 'For The Love of Grace' is an epic mid album highlight - emphatically charming woohoos falesttoed about a radio friendly groove - its an album that quickly ingranes itself with its subtle charms - such summery tunefulness is perfect for gloomy September evenings.

BSM Turns 100

2010-09-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

Oxford indie Big Scary Monsters reaches 100 releases old this week and is celebrating by raiding the rarities box for a new compilation entitled "Partied Hard". Nice Andrew WK pun there.

The releases is a DVD / CD combo which is jam packed full of goodies but you need to move quick - its only available from now until the release of BSM101 (A 7" from Tellison I think...). The compilation is available from the website.

DVD tracklisting:

1. Meet Me In St Louis - All We Need Is A Little Bit Of Energon And A Lot Of Luck (Promo video)
2. Pulled Apart By Horses - Meat Balloon (Promo video)
3. Shoes And Socks Off - Here's My Head On A Playe (Promo video)
4. Secondsmile - Poets Unite In Hate (Promo video)
5. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Whitewash Is Brainwash (Promo video)
6. This Town Needs Guns - 26 Is Dancier Than 4 (Promo video)
7. Dad Rocks! - Nothing Keeps Up (Promo video)
8. My Awesome Compilation - Our Lives: The Sequel (Promo video)
9. Hold Your Horse Is - You Show Up (Promo video)
10. Shapes - Trampled By A Horse (Promo video)

11. Colour - Chutes (Live at The Fly, London - 18.09.09 - last ever gig)
12. Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood (Live at Banquet Records, Kingston - 22.07.09)
13. Walter Schreifels - She Is To Me (Live at Gaz and Black Metal Ian's flat, Manchester - 04.04.10)
14. Adebisi Shank - Shunk (Live at The Twisted Pepper, Dublin - 11.06.09)
15. Tall Ships - Word Are Pegs (Live at Barden's Boudoir, London - 15.02.10)
16. Talons - The Pearl (Live at Heaven, London - 17.11.09)
17. Blakfish - Make Your Bed And Lie In It (Live at Purple Turtle, London - 15.05.09)
18. Grown Ups - Pears (Live at Dauntaun, Milan - 09.06.10)
19. Mimas - SMOM (Live at Voxhall, Århus - 28.02.09)
20. Meet Me In St Louis - We Need To Act Like We Dont Need This Shit... (Live at The Star, Guildford - 07.05.05 - first ever gig)

Bonus content including BSM 5-a-side football tournament highlights, behind the scenes tour footage, interviews, exclusive MP3s and loads more!

Sampler CD tracklisting:

1. Tall Ships - Plate Tectonics
2. Dad Rocks! - Kids
3. Hold Your Horse Is - Mackerel Jason
4. Adebisi Shank - International Dreambeat
5. Shoes And Socks Off - CYF
6. Kevin Devine - She Stayed As Steam
7. Men - Hard Water
8. Talons - Peter Pan
9. Mimas - Application

BSM100 - Partied Hard (DVD trailer) from Kevin Douch on Vimeo.

The sun it will always shine

2010-09-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

In Jakarta Indonesia possibly, not so much in deepest England right now. Here to brighten the gloomy september mornings however is Sajama Cut who by way of a huge radio friendly chorus and a penchant for layers of interweaving harmonies have soundtracked the last two weeks with this slice of perfectly executed folk pop.

You can check the band out on myspace over at www.myspace.com/sajamacut

Youth Pictures Head To Ukl

2010-09-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

So finally the epic Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson arrive on these shores this very weekend for a one off show in Kingston. The band play the fighting cocks this saturday (thats the 11th). Having been seriously in love with their new album PUZZLE THE DETECTIVE for a while now I for one cant wait.

The guys play a bewilderingly beautiful flavour of post rock - all gently unfurling arpeggios and uber reverbed strings floating like the ghostly vapours of New York City sewers. If this sounds like something that would (and it should!) float your proverbial then you are in luck as the band have provided a free track for you to download entitled To Sit Down or To Follow.

Get involved and fall in love as soon as you can

The Uno Moller Treasure Hunt

2010-09-01T01:13:00.000-07:00

Well then the day has come when finally the Uno Moller online treasure hunt (which you may or may not have spent the last ten days tracking across a number of stops across Europe and Scandinavia!) comes to a close.

Uno has been one of our favourite singer songwriter discoveries of the last 12 months and its great news that his debut album "Songs from my beautiful colourball" is finally available. Likened variously of late to Nick Drake, Mark Linkous, Elliot Smith and others, Mollers acoustic led folk is a beautiful secret waiting to be discovered.

To that "discovery" themed end the Lazy Acre guys have been running a treasure hunt for the last 10 days whereby you can collect keywords which, when you spell them out will recite one of Unos Lyrics. Once youve collected them you just need to send them to Lazy Acre Records and you could be in with a chance to win an awesome prize. Uno will record one song with / by / for you and then also 2 covers of your choice. All of this will be put onto a one off handmade CD and you will own the only copy in the world ever.

Before you take the keyword and run off though 1) Check out the awesome track we're showcasing today and 2) Take note of the instructions at the bottom. If you have missed any of the keywords then you can pick up the trail from the start over at Lazy Acre Records page.

<a href="http://unomoller.bandcamp.com/track/as-the-choir-descends">As The Choir Descends by Uno Moller</a>

KEYWORD: HOME
INSTRUCTIONS FROM LAZY ACRE RECORDS: "Congratulations on reaching the end of the Uno Moller online treasure hunt. To be in with a chance of winning the one off record all you need to do is assemble the keywords in the order you collected them and email them along with your name, where you live, and what your favourite type of cake is to lazyacrerecords@gmail.com. If you could make the subject line something original like "Treasure Hunt" then that would be dead handy too."

thats LAZYACRERECORDS@GMAIL.COM

The second album

2010-08-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

The curse of the second album is a difficult one to avoid and is something of a cliche. Well worn may the thinking be however, the logic is fundementally sound. How does a band that had roaring success with the their debut album follow it up with enough familiarity to keep the faithful happy while still breaking enough new ground to prevent them being shovelled into a Kooks shaped grave by the very same hacks who mere months earlier were trumpeting you as the savious of British music.

Of the current crop of Top Shop bands on the circuit, two - in the shape of Tings Tings and The Wombats - return to the fray this month with new singles and each has reacted to the curse of the second record differently and yet somehow ended up in exactly the same place.

Katie Whites Ting Tings lead the charge with their new single "Hands" which strips away the tune-a-day guitars of debut album We Started nothing replace them with a clubby backdrop of synths and four to the floor 404 kick drums. In this slightly more sterile environment Whites "Shop girl at the Kareoke" vocals make infinitely more sense than when rubbing shoulders with the watered down riot grrrl guitars of yore.

On the other hand the ever hard gigging Wombats have returned with new single TOKYO which rewrites "Kill The Director" by way if removing the punka pop guitars and replacing them with more blustery 80's synths and leaving the vocal line, melody, bassline tempo etc resolutely in place.

In short - interestingly enough - both bands on their recent voyages of studio based discovery have ended up at the Hacienda just in time for a headline set from New Order. Of course the parent albums that spawned these 2 singles could well suprise us yet we could well be in for a madchester shaped autumn in the pages of the NME.

How these returning salvos will see the bands fare remains to be seen - The Feeling, The Kooks, The Automatic et al have all found out first hand how fickle the favous of mainstream indie pop buyers can be - with the joke that was stretched towards the end of the campaign for the wombats debut album now wafer wafer thin, youd have to place your bets on the Mancunian two piece being the better placed of the two to weather the storm.

Orchards

2010-08-20T01:28:00.001-07:00

Steeped in folk and country as much as they are effortless indie pop My First Tooth rock. Simple. Picking up a ho-downed baton from last single 'Margaret Yen' new single 'Orchards' rollicks along on a similar path - all intertwining harmonies vocals and rocket fuelled fiddle snaking across each other and almost threatening to bring the whole thing down in a chaotic heap.

Like the bands label mates The Candle Thieves (another band that has stolen our hearts this summer) theres a sense of wide eyed pop wonder at play here that belies their scruffy thrown together image; Starry eyed at every turn and delicately held together under the everyman croon of songwriter Ross Witt.

The new album (the name of which I cant remember now I think about it) has been on the stereo a lot this last week - when it arrives in the Autumn I heartily suggest you get involved.

Bieber on the Oldagehipster?!

2010-08-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Well kind of. I know nothing of this other than the fact its a Justin Beiber track slowed down 800%. Genuinely worth a listen as it ends up being this epic Sigur Ros-y ambient piece

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Shoes and Socks Off - Video #3

2010-06-17T01:29:00.000-07:00

We promised we would bring you all ten of the videos from the new Shoes and Socks Off album and heres number three. A plaintive little strummer this is a lovely little summer song and a very cool stop motion video.

Treat.

Blood Drys Darker

2010-06-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

Coming on like the secret 12” Fleet Foxes have been blatantly ripping off all this time, the latest album from Woods; “At Echo Lake” is a curious beast – feeling at once, like a time capsule from some late 60’s baroque poppers recently discovered and also the sound of (what I imagine to be) San Fransisco AM radio right now – it’s a weird juxtaposition of current and former glories that makes it by default almost timeless.

Of course this general feel of “ive loved this record all my life” is helped no end by some fantastic songwriting – by turns delicate and intimate and full of joyous indie pop goodness, the building blocks of country and folk , elaborated on and expanded with washes of enormous reverb and sitars have been pushed as far as they can to create a bewitching postcard for 21st century Americana.

Masters of tone and mood Woods have created a genuine sleeper classic here and one that you would do well to track down at your earliest convenience.

Lock. Up. Your. Daughters.

2010-06-15T05:52:00.001-07:00

Lets get one thing clear from the start. Haunted George is a seriously creepy guy. Talented? Maybe but I really don’t want him living next door. One look at the gothy / gorey artwork from his recent album “American Crow” will tell you that. It only really tells half the story though and to be honest with a story as rich with myth, half truth and outright scaremongering as Haunted Georges, it probably doesn’t matter all that much.

Throwing creepy swathes of feedback and unsettling vocal effects over trashy b-movie punk (propelled along by some jackhammer bass guitar) sets a decidedly unsettling musical backdrop for the album and many will be as repulsed as they are genuinely amused (theres a certain Halloween tongue in cheek feel to lots of this) and as debauched slabs of howling bluesy swamp punk follow each other along you almost want to go out and bite the head off a bat yourself.

Its an acquired taste for sure but a look down the shelves at your local blockbuster will show you this kind of freak show horror (albeit in visual form) is something of a national pastime right now. Indeed to continue the movie parlance this record is basically a musical version of Wrong Turn or its mutant hillbilly cannibal ilk: Sure its over the top, the special effects are as cheap as they are chilling and theres a certain predictability after a while (indeed in these terms the album is literally just a pair of perky breasts away from actually BEING Cabin Fever) but its none the less enjoyable all the same.

Worth a try if only to scare the living shit out of your neighbor / child / partner.

Latest Music Alliance Pact edition

2010-06-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who dont know about this - the Music Alliance Pact is a joint project between 34 blogs in 34 countries that runs on a monthly basis. The latest edition is now live and you can check it out by perhaps heading over to our friend Knuts site to check it out.

In the meantime heres a br-ill-iant tune for your Tuesday mornings: this guy is going to be beyond huge this year I can promise you that. Where did you read about him first? Thats right. RIGHT HERE fully seven months ago.

Old age hipster hearts Michael Kiwanuka

Viewers of a "no vomiting please" dispostion should look away now

2010-06-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you (sicko!) still reading then its well worth braving the video below (directed by Mike Prior fyi) if only to get to know Rooks a little better - something I shall be doing at my earliest convenience having picked up not insignificant traces of Kambodsja's rage, Blood Commands mainstream sass and Hausts aural hostility in the space of the below two minutes.

Mind you - Im sure they were bought up with better table manners than this.

The Candle Thieves stole my heart as well

2010-06-15T01:09:00.000-07:00

So in case you havent noticed - the world cup is happening. right. now. Television is awash with morons painting their cars and houses to look like flags, scores of t-shirt-less men stalk the streets with crates of Tennents on each shoulder, their faces pink with sunburn and dutch courage. Pubs heave at the doors, threatening to buckle under the weight of the collective machismo contained within. And then....

well then the goalkeeper goes and drops the ball, we resort to long ball football and the nation gets back to doing what it does best: moaning and sighing and whistfully forcing our argument across that while David James might be little more use than a giant gloved stoat behind the back four - at least hes got experience of being that ill equipped rodent.

But rejoice pop fans for in the midst of this chargrilled, beer sodden mess I have found a reason to rejoice our Englishness without fear of mocking laughter or reproach. That reason my friends is the Candle Theives.

TCT's template is English pop whimsy and over the course of a dozen or so delicatley assembled numbers we move from the pastoral folk of a Sid Barrett and through a Kinksy run of melancholic pop, to end up with unabashed joy, dad dancing like they just dont care and giving Belle & Sebastian a run for their money in the "jaunty brass infelted pop" stakes.

Held together with a neat line in lyrical imagery and a general sense of aural fascination - this is a genuine out and out pop band to fall in love with time and again.

Ideally over a Pimms somewhere in deepest Henly.

Have You Got Heart?

2010-06-13T02:43:00.001-07:00

An interesting question for sure and one neatly answered by its originator Mr Leighfield through his debut album. See the heart beating at the very core of his recent album (neatly doubling here as the title of this post in case you were wondering) is one of pure rock.

Luckily, rather than just shut these voices out, Leighfield has let them flourish and used them to expand his singer songwriter template and created a sound as custom built for a nearby stadium as it is your favourite singer songwriter cafe. Kind of akin to Chris Martin fronting the Darkness.

Of course this should be more than enough to send you scurrying a loooong way away but dont because to be scared would be shutting yourself away from the intricate musicianship and interesting lyrics that underpin this whole operation.

A genuinely interesting album and one that I heartily suggest you check out by heading over to Leighfields page at Bandcamp.

Two new SHOES AND SOCKS OFF videos

2010-06-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

Being not only the whirling dervish frontman of Meet Me In St Lois (RIP) and a thoroughly lovely bloke we've been willing SHOES AND SOCKS OFF on for a while now and its great to see so many new people getting into the mans music.

To trail his new album (out soon - details over at www.bsmrocks.com) Toby is releasing ten new videos - one a week for every track on the album.

OLDAGEHIPSTER pledges here and now to bring you all ten but for now heres the first two:

The Disquiet Dog

2010-05-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

For some time now Leicester's MISTERLEE has been ploughing his own delightfully scuzzy furrow of lo-fi/antifolk by way of some joyously chaotic live shows and three (including a live mini) albums of boundless experimentation.

The new Misterlee album is the first for a newly two piece band (indeed the band are exactly two legs slighter than the last time we saw them) and sees the band stretching the template ever further by way of stripping back some (only some mind) of the studio noise and delivering an almost punky set of songs - somehow more aggressive and taut than their predecessors.

Thats not to say that the willingness to experiment and shroud songs in layers of aural mystery has gone - indeed repeat listens will be required to make fullest sense of whats occuring - but one thing is clear: In a world of identikit pop princesses and interchangeable guitar thrummers the presence of an oddball maverick like mainman Lee Allaston is a reason for genuine celebration.

Long Live the 'Lee.

The New album "The Disquiet Dog" is available now on Rubber Czech Records (check out www.misterlee.co.uk)

Heres a wee live video

I just want to have my wicked way with you

2010-05-26T03:39:00.000-07:00

Lotte Mullan it would appear likes to do things her own way. From booking herself support shows in her day job as a tour manager to opening school gigs with a song about Rohypnol; this is a lady who, it would seem, is intent on forging her own way and on the evidence of debut album “Plain Jane” it seems to be working a treat.

A lilting collection of acoustic led songs, Mullans way with a lyric and sharp eye for detail see her vocals thrust front and centre – laid provocatively across a bed of nifty acoustic guitar work, strings and shuffling percussion – with breathtaking effects, as washes of beautiful harmonies abound.

Unafraid to push the envelope from time to time - a turn on a Ukulele one minute, a shift into reggae tinged beats the next – its these vocal chords that tie the tracks together and create one of the most cohesive and (importantly summer pop fans) smile inducing records that have been through my stereo in recent times.

Ive been listening to this in the car for five days straight now and have absolutely no intention of reaching for the eject button just yet.

Beautiful stuff.

Moon Duo

2010-05-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

Operating from a dark and moody operandi – no doubt informed by hours of Dusty 12”s spinning relentless krautrock grooves – MOON DUO, have created a grubby and sinister sounding mini album that suffocates the listener through its four tracks with relentless driving guitars and pummeling bass.

Taking its aural cues from the likes of early BRMC, Spaceman 3, LOOP (man alive I love Loop!) and Lou Reeds Heavy Metal Machine, the record is a dense and swirling mix of fuzzed up bass sparring with spiraling arpeggiated guitars – leaving the vocals cast asunder on the waves of feedback to bob and desperately try to keep the melodies above water.

Whilst certainly not a summer album per se – these Krautrock influenced epics have been sound-tracking the best part of May already and I would suggest they do the same for your June.

Intoxicating and utterly wonderful, this is out on Woodsist records now.

Moon Duo - Bopper's Hat Jam (Live) from BJ Rubin on Vimeo.

I posted on these guys a little while back

2010-05-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

right here in fact but all the same this video arrived which is well worth a look

I See Horses Live @ Blå

I see horses | MySpace Music Videos

Baby, Baby Teeth (file under what?)

2010-05-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

I hate to conform to cliché but I am one of those people who will steadfastly refuse to accept that there has been any real innovation (Morello excluded) in guitar music since the Beatles. As such while the myriad of sub genres and labrinthian scenes in the electronic musical community continue to develop and bewilder at a rapid pace, guitar music can be - by the by - divided roughly into the following groups: Singer songwriter, rock, metal, indie, pop etc etc.

Of course there are some exceptions which im not going to explore here but ultimately its pretty fair to say that they work. Working to these definitions Noumenon are most definitely a “Rock” band. Not just in a musical sense though – I mean the music these Chigao kids make is Rock. In a very literal sense.

The tracks on the band debut ep (available now as a you name the price download from www.noumenon.bandcamp.com) are a series of granite hard slabs of hyper-fuzzed guitars and rat scabies drums finding a middle ground somewhere between Royal Trux, Fugazi and Youthmovies – this band is literally an aural slap in the face with its sheer abrasiveness and impact.

The best thing about the rock tag though is that by default it renders its creators as its architects – brutally chipping away at the face, and leaving shards and sharp corners throughout – providing a perfect metaphor for the twisting post rock song structures, and leaving me without the need to find some kind of venus do milo analogy to finish with.

*think*

*thinks better of it*

Enrich your life. Get involved asap.

<a href="http://noumenon.bandcamp.com/album/party-mathematics-ep-2">Baby, Baby Teeth by noumenon</a>

Heads Up #29 - Stereoart

2010-05-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

Listening to this debut single theres a strange set of reactions to go through. See despite sounding as pristine as its sparkling studio buffed sheen, in that blend of circuitboards and metronomes, theres something utterly europhic about the way this track builds from its initial flickering beats and ends up near howling atop of blitzkreig of finely honed elements.

See for all the circuitry and electronic exoskeletan there is something approaching a soul here, no doubt helped by such a clear and honest production that somehow manages to snuggle round the Florence-y vocal like they were one and the same.

A near perfect distillation of the Coctaeu Twins ether and the thin white duke mix of Mr Brightside, this is well worth 0.99p of your hard earned

<a href="http://stereoart.bandcamp.com/track/silence">Silence by Stereoart</a>

The Cult of Cults

2010-05-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Bloggers everywhere getting very excited about this. Easy to see why - blissed out ethereal doowop put through a Dust Brothers cut and paste workshop and coming out a scuzzed up pop masterpiece.

Reminiscent of A Sunny Day in Glasgow and also a lot like nothing else around. A joyously wonderful reminder that summer is just around the corner. Get this now as a Free download from Cults page over at Bandcamp

Happy fucking days

<a href="http://cults.bandcamp.com/album/cults-7">Go Outside by Cults</a>

Gaslight Anthem Return

2010-05-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

Man alive am I excited about a new Gaslight album... its weird I picked up "the 59 sound" around the same time as the last Hold Steady album and somehow it didnt get the attention on the stereo that it perhaps deserved (in light of my absolute obsession for the opening 1,2,3 on that album) until recently, but since about January there hasnt been many days between listens.

Anyway - the follow up "American Slang" is out shortly... heres some footage from the studio

Treat

The Gaslight Anthem-The Making of American Slang (PT.1)

The Gaslight Anthem | MySpace Music Videos

The Old Age Hipsters guide to the mixtape. #1 - Go For Broke Early

2010-05-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

You need to grab attention. to persuade whoever is listening that the only way theyre going to repeat that feeling of goosebumps theyve got right now is by listening on further. Otherwise all that juggling of Ryan Adams b-sides late on is going to be all in vain.

The opening song therefore has to be stupendous. Beyond stupendous, if a mixtape is supposed to be the soundtrack to the best film youve never seen then this has to be right up there with the star wars theme tune. If possible - try and tick as many of these boxes as possible:

Unknown band
Impossibly oblique band / song name
Big chorus
something with a big euphoric solo is fun*

* indeed that sax break half way through Born to Run is enough to quash any cheesy fears and indeed circumnavigate the first two on the virtue of its ecstatic arrival alone

Even better though - be subtle. Be understated. This is beyond perfect:

Rodriguez & Frusciante.

2010-05-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

As two of alternative rocks most intriguingly oblique guitarists, its an exciting proposition to see the two team up. Indeed given his penchant for squalling solo's and a willingness to open his instrument up to new possibilities, Rodriguez seems something of an ideal to candidate to take Frusciantes place at Rocks top table now he's left the Chillipeppersgreatesthitsrevue to move away from the spotlight.

available now as a free download from Rodriguez's presence on Bandcamp (although that said there is an option to pay which seeing as the money goes into youth music charities is a good thing!) and takes the form of a series of instrumental pieces created apparently a couple of years ago.

Results are mixed; without the confines of a band - even one with as wide a remit for the four minute song as the Mars VOlta - there are occasions where where the opportunity to get all indulgent is too strong to resist, but when the twosome get it right, there are moments of pure unabated beauty.

Well worth checking out on its own terms and not - as many will see it - a random aside in the CV of both

<a href="http://omardigital.rodriguezlopezproductions.com/album/omar-rodriguez-lopez-john-frusciante">4:17 am by Omar Rodriguez Lopez</a>

Albums Round Up: Natalie Merchant, Kyte, Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson

2010-05-04T07:45:00.001-07:00

Its weird that what started me out with this whole “minor redesign thing for the site thing” ended up culminating in what ive recognized this morning to be a renewed sense of excitement about the whole notion of music blogging.

See the old layout etc was functional but ultimately left me feeling a bit cold towards it and so it sat almost unloved for a little while (especially given the upturn in some other projects Ive been working on thus limiting time anyway) and so my passion for writing had kind of – well not diminished – but not providing the excitement it used to…

Anyway that said having started to tinker with things Ive come up with a whole load of new ideas for things that can be going up on here and over the next few weeks there will be more and indeed more varied content *hopefully*.

I do love how these certain sectors of my life every now and then rear their heads and reenergize everything else going on around it at the same time. Its been an absolute pleasure then, that over the last few weeks there has been a steady stream of great new music coming through the door and the inbox to catch you up with:

First up I absolutely have to mention the new album from Natalie Merchant. Not a name ive professed to being particularly into before but her new album “Leave Your Sleep” is a fascinating walk through her own personal songbook of nursery rhymes, poetry, ancient folk songs – all crafted on intertwining ribbons of jazz, folk, swing, ragtime and blues. Its fascinating stuff and throws up some unlikely highlights as the weird tales get a new life of their own reborn into Merchants own gothic mind.

Young enough to be Merchants children – the sickenly youthful KYTE return to the fray with a debut album that more than pays off the cheques written by the magic in those early eps. Stripping away some of the more atmospheric elements of past work, the band have somehow created a work that while being far more obviously “electronic” somehow seems alive with the beating digital heart that goes through a gamut of icy tones to create a record that’s strangely beguiling – suddenly those early Maps remixes start to make more sense – and utterly life affirming.

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson sent me their new album ages ago and Ive been beyond rubbish at getting round to post about it but rest assured it is immense. Spiralling those lost spacebound arpeggios of the bands debut album and bolting rockets to them with epic post rock blasts of noise getting all twinkly and starlike in a meteor shower like ride through rocky time signatures. Cathartic, gentle, brutal, wonderful… I could go on like this all day

And finally my friends over at The Sheep in Wolves Clothing Podcast just released a new edition – this one focused on some very cool Scandinavian acts

Check it out here

Sheep Dressed Up Like Wolves Election Special (05/05/10)byatlumschema

Tracklist is like this

1. Múm – A Little Bit, Sometimes
2. Daniel Agust – Feel Like Dancing
3. Howard James Kenny – Good Fortune
4. Tzmp – Autobahn Police
5. Jenny Mahood – 7 Days
6. Solvor Vermeer – Final Hour
7. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Odi Et Amo
8. Harold Budd – Anish Kapoor
9. Ólafur Arnalds – Ljósið
10. Slowblow – Within Tolerance

Dad Rocks. Fact.

2010-05-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

Black Eyed Dogs Calling At My Door. (or Lisa Hannigan covers Nick Drake)

2010-05-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

This was filmed at the Barbican earlier in the year at a concert featuring the songs of Nick Drake, a massive personal favourite.

I think this version is genuinely devisive - one on hand the driving billowing feel of the hand organ and the massive banks of strings late on is something of the antethis of the stark brutality of the original. Its guaranteed to annoy some of the purists

On the other hand though theres a determination and an unsettling tone to the howls across this version thats seriously bewitching - for me the foreboding melodrama from the original, only hinted at in the aural despair of its protaganist is bought to full fruition with the orchestral flourishes - that you cant help but feel something for. More of a brutal kick in the gut than Drakes own reading but none the less beautiful.

well worth checking out

A Quick Note

2010-05-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

So then, I fancied a bit of a redesign on the site. I think it looks much nicer - would genuinely love to hear your feedback.

Im also going to be finding room on here for some other stuff Ive been doing for a while, more random none musical posts and some designs and stuff. Spoof propaganda that kinda thing.

All that and Ive finally started getting podcasts together. Im halfway through the first one - Ill hopefully be able to share it with you soon

take care

love the old age hipster x

*RIP Idlewild*

Free Music Galore

2010-05-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

A quick note on not one but three excellent freebies for you to download and check out right now. First up leeds mental cases Pulled Apart By Horses have made four tracks from their recent Live at Leeds 12" (released for Record Store Day) available in return for just an email address over at Transgressive Records. You should definitely get involved and check out a bunch of em (including the rather excellent E=MCHammer) here

Pulled Apart By Horses - 'E=MC Hammer'byLukeSlater

Also from Leeds but a little more ambient of tone, Worriedaboutsatan have made a five track live set available for free download which catches the guys in seriously intense form - recorded live in front of a home crowd earlier in the year and is quite wonderful in lots of ways. You can get that right here

worriedaboutsatan live - holy trinity church leeds march 29th by worriedaboutsatan

Finally Scottish-nordic four piece I SEE HORSES release their second EP on Lazy Acre Records this month as a free download as part of the full stop to bad pop campaign. The Bband recall the greatest bits of 80s indie (Postcard Records, Cure, Echo and his merry bunch of bunnymen) with a great scando disco mash up to throw some jagged guitars over some seriously dancefloor hugging numbers.

Get the record for free right over here

An extract from the diary of a hipster circa 2000 (an alternate history)

2010-04-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

During a recent trip to an alternate reality I stumbled across one of my other selfs old diaries. I thought I might share some with you - fascinating to see how things have been on alternate planes of reality:

"...Of all the comeback albums this year none had such a massive impact as Ok Computer 2. It has been six months now since the follow up and who could have predicted what would happen. Rumours of a new electronic direction proved as we now know to be unfounded, as Thom and the boys returned with the choruses from the Bends atop the melodrama and weird structures and the rest is history. How we laughed at those trendy kids with their Warp records bags tucked under the arms - the luddites. Of course Jeff Buckleys timely return to headline all 3 nights of Reading this year helped to cement this fact but with Thom now firmly entrenched in his work at number ten maybe this year someone elese will get a look in."

Of course what we do know over here on our little timeline is that isnt quite what happened but its hard not to want to speculate on what Radiohead could have achieved by taking a different approach to KidA.

Luckily Black Soul Strangers offer a pretty good glimpse of what alternative rock could have been taking as it does a smattering of some excellent influences and creating something delicously compelling.

Sure the wavering, tremulous Yorke-y vocals are there but musically the muscular guitars and sense of drama brew up a near gothic maelstrom of heavily overdriven guitars and relentless drums - by turns Adore-era-Pumpkins, early My Vitriol or indeed the aforementioned R*diohead - reigned in with a nice sense of dynamics along the way.

I think the guys are in session on Radio 2 sometime this next week - you should definitely tune in and find out for yourself what life is like for your four handed self in the submarine.

Treat.

*This episode of the old age hipster is bought to you by the Family Guy episode "Road to the multiverse" where we find that on alternate planes of reality exist ourselves just in some way different. As there are infinite possibilities you can find yourself in all kinds of weird ass variations.

Ahem. Find out more myspace.com/blacksoulstrangers

Seriously fucking exciting news...

2010-04-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Dinosaur Jr and Built To Spill are on tour in May together here in the UK. The opportunity to catch two of the most awesome and influential alt rock bands together and a dead small stage is a seriously awesome prospect.

If you possibly can this is one of the tours to be at this spring - coming in support of their last album which is out now and was something of a critics choice for last year.

Catch Mascis and Co Here

May 2010
Saturday 8th 02 Academy Oxford
Sunday 9th 02 Academy Liverpool
Monday 10th Black Box, Galway, IRE
Tuesday 11th Vicar Street, Dublin, IRE
Wednesday 13th 02 ABC Glasgow
Friday 14th 02 Academy Newcastle
Saturday 15th 02 Academy Leeds
Sunday 16th 02 Academy Birmingham
Monday 17th Cambridge Junction
Tuesday 18th 02 Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Ticket prices are £18 except for London which is £20. Door times are: 6.30 p.m.

Treat. In the meantime look out for lots of this

Heads Up #25 - The Dangerous Summer

2010-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a thing called Emo. it had been borne out of punk and hardcore and the realisation that being a sensitive soul wasnt perhaps such a bad thing after all. Everyone got very excited about it - indeed Deep Elm Records for one made a whole career out of it - until one day, much like everything else, the ad men and the top shop designers got in on the act and by watering it down to a mere commodity, the whole thing became something to revile.

Luckily somewhere in the midwest, four young yankee kids had taken note of all this gubbins and carefully noted the pitfalls to avoid. By remembering the truisms and avoiding the cliches (by way of also gigging their arses off) the foursome became The Dangerous Summer, and to stretch the timeline ad infinitum have provided one of the most refreshing American rock albums to drop through the door in a long time.

Sure the template is well worn - Finch, Appleseed Cast, Jimmy Eat World all spring to mind pretty quickly - but the point is that when done well, with feeling and conviction theres still plenty of life in this tartan clad dog yet.

The band move briskly through the tracks that make up their new album, never once dwelling on a point for too long and as a result have crafted a lean, taut, smile inducing album that if you like a bit of this kind of guitary madness, will set your summer off a treat.

Much love then from ol' hippie here - you should definitely see what your missing soon

A New Stylusboy EP is among us

2010-04-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

Surely one of the midlands hardest working songwriters, Coventrys Stylusboy has a new EP out right now. You can download it (for free i believe) by heading on over to www.stylusboy.bandcamp.com right about now.

Theres something beguilingly honest about Steve Jones' Badly Drawn Boy esque blend of britfolk... all wickedly melodic choruses and interesting backing too. By stripping away the noise, if not the off kilter melody of his former band Lowdrive (themselves more than capable of writing melodic, interesting guitar pop) the writing manages to retain a certain elusive sense of conclusion, as if the songs are still finding new ways to express themselves even as the red light is blinking...

Live, with minimal backing and some beautiful backing vocals to carry the songs along they make most sense, a honest to hand account of fatherhood, faith and the passing of time - this little live ep is a belter and one that youd be well advised to check out for free right now

Danger Ahead

2010-04-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

As Ive stressed before in these ere pages, one of the hardest things to do when appraising music by friends and friends of friends is that the fine line between sycophancy and "shit that persons never going to speak to me again" is a tricky one to walk... a path littered with uncomfortable dinner party silences and the corpses of friendships past - however through it all I maintain that by approaching all reviews etc from the same starting point, it makes it a lot easier to be objective and more to the point above reproach later on. None of that Ripfork bullshit for me thanks!

I say all of this as a precursor to a confession, nameley that through my formative years at university, Dub Mafia vocalist Eva Lazarus was the vocalist in a funk band that was essentially the central hub in a smut/pot/funk triumverate that pretty much ruled my life. And a lot of fun it was too - bezzing round with the guys to random shows in such sulubrious surroundings as the Victoria Hotel in Stoke on Trent.

When the aforementioned "Wired" eventually bit the dust, Lazarus found her way to Bristol and took up the Mic in the multilegged combo Dub Mafia where her massive bassy vocals have found new life in the grooveladen arms of her new cohorts.

Dub Mafia have been gigging for a while now (although as Ive yet Ive not managed to see them first hand) and as a result lock in tighter than one of those nice sweaters Zooey Deschanels always wearing - a hypnotic groove of heavy percussive led beats, loping bass and a tastefully deployed turntable (man i hate those wicky wicky wah wah cliches).

Throwing in liberal wathes of funk, dub and hip hop into the mix, the pervading ghost of Bristols spooky trip hop past also looms large in places to create a sound instantly at ease with its formative parts (and its sum for that matter), whilst at the same time creating a veritable of smorgasbord of possibilities for an already adventurous band of sonic adventures.

At its heart Lazarus vocals still steal the show - by turns sultry, sexy, raw and powerful - lifting the band above the realm of muso funk gurus and into a genuine concern to be reckoned with.

One to watch for sure then and proof that for the very best in urbane cool, Bristols still got a lot to offer.

www.dub-mafia.com

Five Minutes With... Kevin Devine

2010-03-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Needing not much of an introduction to regular readers here (indeed weve been praising the virtues of Brothers Blood for some time now) wed been trying to sort an interview out with Kevin Devine for some time now but we were finally able to catch up with Kevin Mid Tour (on his way through Europe) to catch up.

OAH: Hello Kevin - how the devil are you?

KD: Alles klah, as they say auf Deutsch. Writing from the backstage area at a club called Posthalle in Wurzburg, Germany Finishing up a 3-week European tour, three more shows.

OAH: You must be having a well earned rest after such a busy year last year?

KD: Well, I probably was at the time you wrote this to me. It's taken me a while to get to answering. I spent mid-December to mid-February in New York, relaxing, seeing friends and family, domesticating. Cooking, eating. Some recording a local show here and there. Staying warm, watching 'Mad Men.' Relaxing.

OAH: how do u see 2009 now youve had chance to get a bit of perspective and let the dust settle on it - was one hell of a year...

KD: It was. It kinda feels like this year's an extension of it; I'm still very much amongst it. The record's just getting released in Australia, and touring there in two weeks; I'm doing my first full band Europe tour behind it right now; have all these festivals upcoming at home, Coachella, Bamboozle, Bonnaroo, and some more US dates, and then looking like festivals this summer in Europe/UK, so it's all still very much 'happening.' Last year was fucking nuts. Just so active and exciting, so much opportunity, such a warm embrace for the record. A series of victories for building all these independent relationships with these small labels and for working your ass off. It was pretty nutty.

OAH: any particular highlights?

KD: Going to Japan for the first time, SXSW in Austin, the record release show at Bowery Ballroom and first US headlining tour, UK with BN, Lollapalooza, Get Up Kids tour in the States, and the Big Scary Monsters XMas UK thing; it was a year of highlights.

OAH: how satisfying was it finally seeing some more widespread attention over here in the uk?

KD: You can't start gauging for yourself your success or lack of it based on other people's perceptions, but it's always nice to be treated and received well for something you're proud of. So, it's nice, gratifying to start building a base outside London, and has everything to do with Big Scary Monsters working so hard to release and support the record, and the summer support tours with Brand New and Manchester I'm obviously still not in a place there - or anywhere -where I'm drawing 1,000 people all over the country every night, but it is building, and the people coming out do seem to really care about it and connect to it, and I consider myself very lucky to have that relationship. And the press there, from online blogs up through NME, have been really receptive to that record, which was also unexpected and cool.

OAH: BB in places seemed like a really emotionally raw album - am i reading too much into the stories or is that the case? what kinda stuff went into that record?

KD: I mean, some of it is very raw; all of it is deeply felt, even the stuff that's a bit more fictional or written at somewhat of a remove. At the same time, I'm not some bitter/angry/morbid person; that record is about conscience, and loss, and responsibility, and sex, and love, and drugs, and hope and fear and confusion. About social anxiety and the world around us. So it's a bit heavy in spots; but I also make really absurd jokes about truly silly shit. Everyone has sides to their personality, and I'm no exception.

OAH: how do u manage to stay excited about singing these songs 200 nights a year? does it get easier the larger the back catalogue becomes?

KD: I think that helps, yeah, because you can kind of swap things in and out and keep it fresh that way. I go through phases where there are certain songs I want to play every single night for like 6 months and others where it doesn't occur to me at all to play that same song. I try to govern it as best as possible by balancing how I feel and what I want with an awareness of what the people coming to the show want. Seems to work out pretty well all in all.

OAH: and whats the plan for 2010 - can we expect to see a new album at any point?

KD: I'm still touring on "Brother's Blood." Just finished a European headline tour, doing the first stuff in Australia for the record in a week, coming back home into spring festivals in the States - Coachella, Bamboozle, Bonnaroo - and then hopefully doing one last waltz through everywhere it's been put out. I think there'll be a 7" single of unreleased songs sometime this spring/summer, but as for a new proper record, I'd say 2011 probably.

OAH: have you started writing a songs for the new record as of yet? If so what kinda stuf are you touching on? I read a few bloggers last year that had mentioned political undertones to some of the songs on BB - asuming they were correct there must be a lot of change over in the states right now - are u drawing on that flux at all?

KD: Weirdly, the 7 or 8 songs I have written aren't very 'political,' they're mostly personal in nature but more character sketches and storytelling than first person or confessional. There is a lot of flux happening here and I've got plenty of thoughts/feelings/reactions but they're not manifesting themselves in a direct musical expression right now. One song, "The Easy Mark and The Old Maid," kind of does but even that is a bit more...camera pulled back, abstract, almost more about someone's overall philosophy about social change or stagnation, about the state of things, than about specific catalysts.

Four of the songs are going to end up on a record I made in January with the Manchester Orchestra guys. It'll have a new band name and it'll be out late this year, I think.

OAH: you seem to have found nice home on BSM - are u looking forward to workign with them again? anything special planned for this year?

KD: Absolutely. I think we've set something really great up there and hope we can see it through together to the next level. I believe in Kevin and the label and feel grateful for his hard work and vision. Right now, speaking outside any of the logistical hurdles that can muck up something as seemingly simple as releasing a record, I can't see any reason not to continue that relationship, and I intend to.

Reassuringly Twinkly

2010-03-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

I was absolutely blown away when I saw Ingrid Olava live a couple of weeks back. She was backed by an incredible band (seriously I was transfixed by the drummer) who bought the songs from her new record to life in a way that absolultely magical.

Seeming to revel in the quirk pop princess role Olava has opted for a jazzy piano shaped path kind of akin to a less quirky Regina Spektor covering Joni Mitchell songs... I cant think of anything wrong with that at all!

Heres the first single off the album

New Shoes and Socks Off EP Out Soon

2010-03-17T09:08:00.001-07:00

Shoes and Socks Off Release a new EP Monday 22nd March. Its a covers ep and will be available as a free download from Big Scary Monsters

You should definitely get involved with it. Also you can get a bunch more SASO MP3s by signing up to BSMs Friend of The Family minisite.

Holy Shit Theres A New Kyte Record and its amaaaaaazing

2010-03-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

More to come on this shortly but suffice to say its exactly the record the last two eps have pointed to - epic, understated and somehow kinda dancey... full post to come but for now heres some stuff about what theyve been up to

This is really rather lovely

2010-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Someone passed me this record a little while back (although Alice Tragedy is also getting very excited about this record from what i see)

Music For Tourist's (chris's new album) is a really nice piano and string led affair with a really interesting Davey McManusey kinda voice going on - a rare thing, one that rasps and soothes in equal measure.

Lovely lovely stuff

Five Minutes with... Walter Schreifels

2010-03-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

As head honcho in some of the biggest names in Hardcore and US Punk over thelast 20 years (See Quicksand, Rival Schools, Gorilla Biscuit etc) Walter Schreifels needs no introduction so instead we decided to jump straight in and find out whats what with his new Solo album (An Open Letter To The Scene) Out soon on the ever awesome Big Scary Monsters

OAH: so walter, after being associated with so many seminal bands what was the motive behind the slight shift in focus with a solo album?

WS: Having done so many bands I thought it time that I start putting records out under my own name. It's been a great way for me to put my past work in a different context as well as a new creative challenge to put it all on my own shoulders. It was tricky at first but I think I've got the swing of it now.

OAH: is an acoustic based record something youve been thinking of for a while? is this how the songs normally take shape anyway?

WS: Unless I'm already a fan, when I walk into a club and see a guy with an acoustic guitar my first thought is oh shit, now I have to be polite and listen, so I try not to think of it in that way. The songs were written on acoustic guitar so that works in a live setting but I had always imagined the album to have accompaniment, drums, bass, keys. That said, I do want people to be polite and listen.

OAH: How did u find the process of writing for an acoustic setting when theres a much greater emphasis on things like lyrics and structures than perhaps there would be in a bad setting when by default things are a lot more dynamic?

WS: I've written lots of songs that work acoustically in the past but it had never been what I set out to do. In the past when it came to writing the lyrics, the music was usually recorded already and I'd be in a panic to fill it with words that made sense with melodies and rhythm to boot, a big stress out. With these songs I followed them in a very linear way, lyrics and melodies following eacother, the stories more naturally progressed. I still hit bumps but it's fun to write in this way.

OAH: I suppose the stereotype is of peoples solo acoustic records being there "heartbreak/sensitive/emotional" albums - what kind of themes went into these new songs?

WS: I admire guys like Robyn Hitchcock, Jonathon Richmond, Stephin Merritt and when I've got the band behind me Nick Cave. They're able to tell stories that are often dark but with sense of humor and intelligence that keeps it entertaining and out of James Blunt's world. It also seems to me that the go-to template for singer songwriters of the last ten years has been Elliot Smith, which is great but may have helped to create that stereotype.

OAH: so walter, after being associated with so many seminal bands what was the motive behind the slight shift in focus with a solo album?

WS: Having done so many bands I thought it time that I start putting records out under my own name. It's been a great way for me to put my past work in a different context as well as a new creative challenge to put it all on my own shoulders. It was tricky at first but I think I've got the swing of it now.

OAH: is an acoustic based record something youve been thinking of for a while? is this how the songs normally take shape anyway?

WS: Unless I'm already a fan, when I walk into a club and see a guy with an acoustic guitar my first thought is oh shit, now I have to be polite and listen, so I try not to think of it in that way. The songs were written on acoustic guitar so that works in a live setting but I had always imagined the album to have accompaniment, drums, bass, keys. That said, I do want people to be polite and listen.

OAH: How did u find the process of writing for an acoustic setting when theres a much greater emphasis on things like lyrics and structures than perhaps there would be in a bad setting when by default things are a lot more dynamic?

WS: I've written lots of songs that work acoustically in the past but it had never been what I set out to do. In the past when it came to writing the lyrics, the music was usually recorded already and I'd be in a panic to fill it with words that made sense with melodies and rhythm to boot, a big stress out. With these songs I followed them in a very linear way, lyrics and melodies following eacother, the stories more naturally progressed. I still hit bumps but it's fun to write in this way.

OAH: I suppose the stereotype is of peoples solo acoustic records being there "heartbreak/sensitive/emotional" albums - what kind of themes went into these new songs?

WS: I admire guys like Robyn Hitchcock, Jonathon Richmond, Stephin Merritt and when I've got the band behind me Nick Cave. They're able to tell stories that are often dark but with sense of humor and intelligence that keeps it entertaining and out of James Blunt's world. It also seems to me that the go-to template for singer songwriters of the last ten years has been Elliot Smith, which is great but may have helped to create that stereotype.

OAH: what spurred the choice of covers on the record?

WS: It being my first "solo" record I wanted to contextualize it with my past which is why I'm referencing hardcore, hence "Society Suckers". Also, I love that song and I wanted people to hear it the way I hear it, like a pop song. I wrote "Don't Gotta Prove It" it for CIV, along with the entire first album. The CIV version was meant as an Irish, Clancy Brothers type rebel song. For my version I decided to glam it up a little, make it rock and roll.

OAH: were there any tracks you wished you would have had space for?

WS: I've spent time with many of these tracks so I want them all to find a home but in putting an album together it needs to make sense with itself as a whole and some songs just aren't going to make the cut unfortunately. To put it in sports terms, you may have two great guys at the same position but only one will get to start because you want the team to win. So the answer is yes but there's always b sides and my upcoming mixtape.

OAH: how are you planning on touring the record? Will it be a solo thing? it must be nice to get that personal connection back?

WS: The first run in the UK will be a solo acoustic though I'll be back with the band in late May. I've been doing acoustic performances for a while now and I do enjoy the spontaneity and intimacy of it. I have fun and put on a good show either way.

IAH: how have you found the reaction from press and radio in terms of its status as a solo record. I mean - as ive already proven its almost impossible to contextualise the record without leaning heavily on your back catalogue and the work youve done before - is it hard in a position like yours to get people to focus on the future rather than the past?

WS: I have a diverse body of work to draw on and that helps. From the beginning I've meant for this record to bring everyone up to speed on the work I've done and where I'm headed in the future. It references a lot of my past but stylistically it's unlike anything I'm really known for, that's my set up for the future. Meanwhile I think it's my most accessible record to date which is also pretty futuristic.

OAH: finally with that in mind whats your take on the current wave of bands coming through wearing their rival schools / gorilla biscuits badges on their sleeves (/records!) is there anyone out there thats particularly stolen your heart of late?

WS: I can hear the influence of music I've done in bands that don't even know they're doing it because they ripped their sound off another band that was ripping me off in the first place but in the end I was ripping off someone else before me so it's all good. There's a kid on youtube that I saw yesterday playing Used For Glue on bass that was pretty touching, It's the sort of thing that reminds me how I do love what I do!

Thanks,

W

An Open Letter To The Scene is out next month on Big Scary Monsters Records

The River Phoenix

2010-02-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

I need time to get hold of the album and have a proper listen to this before I talk at lengh about it but I fell in love with this band last week. If you like your rock bands angular and bearded with some fucking cool tunes, then this is the place to be

Waffles by Candlelight

2010-02-24T00:59:00.000-08:00

I can guarantee you there are no two words designed to spread fear into a journalists eye's than "industry showcase" - im not a massive fan of all that backslapping and general air of aloof cool from the attendant hipsters (much as i might be something of a hipster myself) - plus if its rubbish your kind of stuck there until the end; at the Barfly noone sees you leave. At little studio things however EVERYONE is watching.

At about three o clock however on Saturday something entirely different was happening in the back streets of Oslo as a multitude of press, locals and musicians all packed in to see local girl Solvor Vermeer get the campaign for her new EP on the road.

As youd expect from the humble homespun folk at Lazy Acre however, this was not your average backslapping event. In one room someone was making Waffles on a portable iron, in another King Creosote struggled to slip on his blue CSI style shoe protectors, crowds of exciteable studio geeks hoarded around vintage mixing desks while in the main room Solvor Vermeer was bewitching everyone with an ethereal set of piano and cello led songs - raising goosebumps and smiles in equal measure. We even got a glimpse of a brand new work in progress which raises expectation for Ms Vermeers recorded output signifcantly.

Pay attention major label losers - this is how nice these things CAN be!!

Gutting News from Camp Blakfish

2010-02-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

It is with great sadness that the old age hipster has to report the sad passing into history of Blakfish. These bonkers Brummies made one of our favourite albums of last year in "Champions" and they will be sorely missed.

A statement on the bands myspace reads like this:

"There's no easy way to say this so we'll just jump right in. On Thursday the 11th of February, 2010 in Bilbao, Spain, mid tour with Biffy Clyro, Sam decided to announce that he could no longer continue as a member of Blakfish. This came as a complete shock to us and everyone else on the tour.

We would like to send our deepest apologies to everyone who's supported us in anyway, all the people who have invested their time, faith and money into our band, or our friends, fans, promoters and our families who supported us as we threw everything away to dedicate our lives to this band.

This was in no way a group decision and state that it is the choice of an individual which unfortunately affects many other people.

The three of us and our manager Kirk will surely continue musically in the future as this is all we have ever wanted to do, but regrettably this is the end of the road for Blakfish.

Blakfish - 2000 - 2010"

a massive massive shame.

More to come on this...

2010-02-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

... next week when old hippy here isnt quite as frantically busy but im really enjoying this little EP right now

Walter Schriefel - Most Excellent News

2010-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Yes he may well be the founder of Rival Schools, Gorilla Biscuits et al and indeed occupy a Bono shaped gap in the Hardcore scene but now is no time for looking back as Walter Schriefels has a new album out (courtesy of the ever excellent folks at Big Scary Monsters) in the coming months.

Even better than that, to back up said album (which includes the below rather excellent cover of "Society Suckers") he is touring the UK through March and April... you definitely wanna make sure you get yourself along here:

27/03 - Exeter, Cavern
28/03 - Bristol, Academy 2
29/03 - Cardiff, Barfly
30/03 - Kingston, The Peel
31/03 - Birmingham, Academy 3
01/04 - Sheffield, Leadmill
02/04 - Glasgow, King Tuts
03/04 - Leeds, Cockpit 3
04/04 - Manchester, Night & Day
06/04 - Nottingham, Bodega
07/04 - London, Barfly
08/04 - Southampton, Joiners

Awesome indeed.

In case your itching to hear what the album will sound like head on over to BSMs website) and get signed up for their 2010 collection and you will get the first track from the album sent straight to you along with a T Shirt and 51 other excellent mp3s over the course of the year. A fucking treat I tell thee

Heads Up#24 - Twin Atlantic

2010-02-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

Of course by now Twin Atlantic are not really a "heads up" kinda band any more - last years mini album Vivarium saw fit to make sure they rapidly outgrew that particular step of the Indie ladder pretty quickly yet when a single like "Lightspeed" arrives though it is indeed a worthy cause for reflection and reevaluation and as it is; has seen me shift my opinion from "mildly interesting biffy-cats" to "actually got some serious fucking tunes!

While delving so fully into the american posthardcore and emo scenes that inspired them, could see the band end up in a Bush shaped hell - rocking enormodomes in Kansas and the barfly in Cardiff - its testament to the bands confidence in their metallic sounding take on the genres that they dont seem to care at all and indeed beckon in the mid west with open arms and no doubt a few well placed horns getting thrown for good measure

Easily the calling card single from the album Lightspeed is a definite kick in the ass to go check out what youve been missing all of these months

In the absence of a video from the New Monzano album...

2010-02-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

... heres an old one. That doesnt change the fact though that when it comes out on February 15th (courtesy of Spoon Train) you should get hold of a copy forthwith.

Its called "This Time last year everything will look younger" and its absolutely bloody brilliant

We Live In Grim Times

2010-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

Its true. Dont get me wrong, Im as full of January optimism as the next man right now (indeed its been a pretty good week all told) but there is no doubt that we live in an age of regret, of turmoil, of unrest, of unspeakable deeds and unpunished injustices.

Its at times like this I think to myself that I am indeed vey lucky to have the solace of music to which I can escape from all of this doom and gloom and - for at least a few seconds - enjoy a few bittersweet chords with a light sprinkling of a cello every now and then.

Perfectly designed for such a task come MY LITTLE PONY this week with their new ep "My Little Pony play the hits of... My Little Pony" out as a free download from the Full Stop To Bad Pop Campaign (lazy acre records).

Its a genuine medical impossibility to get through these tracks without falling desperatley in love with them - all earnest indie pop sung in goosebumping harmonies throughout - but its the breathless naivety and wide eyed wonder thats so infectious ; throwing a mariachi troupe and and a sring section into the mix in order to sprinkle the tunes in fairy dust.

Its something of a masterstroke though and one youd be well advised to track down at your earliest convenience.

Classic Geek Chic

THE HIPPY AWARDS 2009 - BEST NEW BAND

2009-12-23T03:33:00.000-08:00

New bands are a weird one to judge – I listen to so many new band that Ive fallen in love with some records this year that had seen their creators split up and disappear before the CD had even made it to my player, but even so – there is nothing as exciting (for me personally anyway) as that initial spark of excitement to be had as a new band crops up in your life that blows you out of the door and halfway back round the block.

When it comes to some of these awards some were logical choices, some were based on a gut feel but for the Hippy Award for Best New Band I relied solely on one particular statistic; See my ipod is rammed to the rafters with all kinds of stuff – at last count some 8000 songs were on there vying for attention but strangely enough one act has just one song on there and yet somehow this one track ends 2009 and as the most played couple of minutes on there.

I was introduced to Sharks Took The Rest earlier this year by way of a demo of their track Isobel sent to me by a friend and ever since, these four minutes of gently undulating piano led folk-tronica has been a near constant – in the car, on the pod, round the house – even Mrs Hipster who isn’t a massive fan finds herself singing it such is the near ubiquity of the track in Chez Hip’.

Quite what it is I don’t know – the way the aching piano wraps itself around an angelic vocal line to flesh out the glitchy bed of electronica it almost sounds as if the song is writing itself as it goes along, making its way out of the cocoon and arriving in the world barely able to stand but yet utterly beautiful . A perfect document of a work in progress, Isobels gently unfolding lines threw me headlong into one hell of a love affair.

In November I finally got round to seeing the guys live and was genuinely taken aback by the weight of what ensued – a massive 8 piece band throwing strings and gentle washes of electric guitar into the mix, was just heavenly – wrapping the nucleus of the songs in ornate layers of counter melodies and hushed backing vocals and gently draping them across the room to devastating effect.

If there is even a shred of justice in the world in 2010, we will all know a lot more about Sharks, this time next year – for now, catch up with what you’ve been missing…

The Hippy Award 2009 for best new band then goes to: Sharks Took The Rest!

THE HIPPYS 2009 - BEST ALBUM AWARD

2009-12-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that over the course of this year some 300 new albums and EPs have been through the hipster stereo (seriously – ive just done a rough count!) when it comes to thinking about my Album of the year one record keeps coming back to mine as the only possible candidate.

It has to be said that 2009 was a good year for albums; genuine diamonds have been arriving pretty regularly – Grizzly Bear, Candy Claws, Kambodsja, Bellman, Lisa Hannigan, Richard Walters, Blakfish et al have between them sound-tracked huge swathes of my time – but sadly for all of the aforementioned – one record in particular has never failed to quicken the pulse, raise a very big smile and honestly make me fall in love with music all over again, whenever its come within 5 feet of the CD player.

When Deep Elm returned to the fray earlier this year (thank god!) after a bit of an absence the one thing that really struck me was the new found scope and range in the repertoire – taking in a new found seam of country, pop, electronic sounds – to develop the emo framework they’ve long been known for.

The best example of this without a shadow of a doubt is Track A Tiger.

TAT’s new album “I Felt The Bullet Hit My Heart” is an absolute tour de force for me – taking you on a whirlwind journey through a smorgasbord of indie, pop, country, folk and electronica to create easily the most uplifting set of tunes to arrive in a very long time.

That’s not to say that such genre based schizophrenia is all style over substance – this is a band with an excellent grasp of how best to write a song – layering ladle fulls of Mercer-esque melodies with banks of harmonies – not least with the albums title track which appears twice – once in the form of a driving indie rocker and once (to close the album) draped in piano and strings to create a gently lulling country number to close the album in style.

Despite repeated attempts to get this puppy out of the CD player this last few months im sorry to report im still failing dismally and so it gives me great pleasure to announce the winner of THE HIPPY AWARD 2009 for best album goes to: TRACK A TIGER – I FELT THE BULLET HIT MY HEART

The Hippy Awards 2009

2009-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

* The Hippys are our new awards that I intend to run each december for the best of the stuff that has dropped onto the Hipsters doormat this year.*

Our First Award this year goes out for Indie Label Of The Year

It has to be said that as much as I have wrestled and conflicted with myself over certain winners of these ere inaugural awards in various categories, when it came to label of the year there was absolutely no doubt in my mind as to who was the most worthy winner.

For some time now BSM (or Big Scary Monsters to those of us that remember their emo heavy early days, hve been steadily amassing a roster and a back catalogue that would make anyone currently operating a little label on the UK underground sick. Blakfish, Secondsmile, Kevin Devine, Shapes, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Wintermute, Jeniferever… scrolling through the pages of the labels site is something akin to rifling my own ipod – each release markedly different to the last and each one standing up in their own right as a record worthy of a place on anyones CD shelves.

While like most similar outfits, the label started the year in the fug that was the downfall of Pinnacle, just 12 months later has had their most successful year to date – numerous jam packed tours, records out seemingly every week from new and exciting places (How do you go from the indie pop of Copy Haho to folkster Kevin Devine via Luxembourgs finest post rockers? Well Im not sure if Im honest but somehow it all seems to fit so nicely its untrue)

Whilst doing the basics (promotion, branding, commandeering of web 2.0 and a seemingly neverending supply of amazing acts) very very well the other thing that marks BSM out as a genuine diamond is the other ways the label manages to promote itself and get its music out there – this year has seen the launch of a new subscription service (to be refined and dramatically expanded next year) as well as the annual five a side football tournament , endless blogging, CDR releases and a line of frankly astounding merch (seriously these guys could run a tshirt company in their own right!)

Here we have a label not only releasing great records but selling great records (there is as Im sure you will be aware a difference!) and consistently soundtracking mine, and many others im sure, working days.

The winner then of the Hippy2009 for best record label then goes to Big Scary Monsters – long may you reign

www.bsmrocks.com

And heres why...

An Acceptance Speech from Kevin Douch - Label Honcho @ BSM

Erm, not sure what to say for the acceptance speech, but I'd just like to thank my family and friends for making this possible! I guess the bands play a part too. It's been a wonderful year and hopefully 2010 will be even bigger and better, so I look forward to receiving this award and hopefully coming up with a much better speech in 12 months time!

Dont Believe The Hype

2009-12-14T05:36:00.001-08:00

Aside from putting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents, eating a lot, and battling the shops I spent some of this weekend decorating. This is not something that comes easy to me. See as Mrs Hipster pointed out rather profoundly as I struggled in vain to work out how to put together the paint roller, one of the ways feminism has shot itself in the foot so dramatically is that while a man like myself can cook, knows how to use the washing machine and can even repair a button on a shirt – when it comes to anything you could loosely describe as “manly” I have not got a chance.

Like – seriously… I have no idea whats wrong with the car, much less how to fix it. I like a BBQ for sure but have had limited success in the past getting the damn thing lit. Flat pack furniture? F(l)at chance my friend.

It doesn’t help that I have absolutely no interest anyway in rolling round under cars and up to my ears in sawdust and rawplugs but all the same I sometimes feel less equipped than perhaps my ancestors were. Personally I prefer to manifest my masculinity in different ways; - I like to harrumph before leaving a room to express my displeasure, I absolutely know where we are heading and no I don’t need a map.

The other big way I do this is steadfastly refusing to listen to anyone – especially when it comes to music. I wont be told that someone else knows best. Ive gone to such extreme lengths to avoid being swayed by hype as to completely refuse to listen to certain records in the past to avoid being swept along in the euphoria and hyperbole. For example - by time The Strokes were releasing their second album I was only just thawing to Is This It?

This year was no different – as Fearne and the NME battle it out to decide whos loving what the most (gushing doesn’t even come close) – there have been a steady stream of records that on paper Im sure I probably would enjoy but due to the sheer volume and persistence of the world telling me I should listen to, I have simply put to the bottom of the pile and begun a love affair with French ambient instead.

With the prospect of a few quiet hours then to listen to some stuff I decided to finally get round to listening to a bunch of stuff - chiefly Danananananananakroyd after all this time – and I have to say I was more than a little surprised.

It has to be said that of all the bands lingering near the dusty pile next to the stereo right now these guys have raised the most eyebrows – everything from the dual drummers, the impeccably “halls of residence joke that were now stuck with” name, the frenzied need for trouser changing in the blogosphere… just no… I just was not interested.

But finally now, listening to these mixed up muddled up songs for the first time – away from the clamour and the noise I discovered that actually this is surely a band to fall in love with over and over again.

While at times the word “scenesters” is never far from my lips theres something joyously authentic about the swirling jackhammers of guitars that pummel these songs into your subconscious. Indeed on the subject of the bands genuine noisiness – I personally had always assumed the bands dual prescence in Kerrang and the NME was at best – envelope stretching or perhaps even a light hearted stab at irony by one or both parties but heres the thing: I genuinely think youd see these guys down the front at a Hawkwind concert as much as youd see them surveying the Barfly over a pint of Snakebite and Black.

A genuine surprise then (and indeed a more welcome one than it was to find yesterday that St Vincents record is rubbish) and one that whilse perhaps defeating my self held belief that I was right to ignore it for so long, confirms to me that I was completely justified “well I would wouldn’t i?!” – I genuinely think half of the joy is finding these little gems yourself without being carried to the “play button” by the populace at Kings Reach Tower.

You probably already know then for yourself but if not check it out – well worth a listen

Effortlessly Beautiful

2009-11-26T06:48:00.000-08:00

5 minutes with... Newton Faulkner

2009-11-23T05:04:00.001-08:00

To celebrate our100th post heres a recent interview I did with Newton Faulkner...

One of the surprise breakthroughs of the past few years; Newton Faulkner’s ascension from dreadlocked alt-folkie to chart hugging, chat-show visiting songwriter de jour has been a triumph of substance over style with debut album Handbuilt by Robots currently occupying over 1.5 million CD shelves and counting. I caught up with the man himself as he hits the road for his UK tour behind the release of new album Rebuilt by Humans.

Having had our interview postponed once due to illness I am keen to crack on and find out just what’s been going on…

OAH: Newton - How are you, are you feeling better?

NF: Yes much better thanks – I had a weird chesty thing and had to spend a couple of days hooked up to some weird steamer things… it wasn’t too bad though we didn’t have to cancel any shows… I’ve only cancelled one my whole career… although we did have to reschedule some when I broke my wrist.

OAH: Are you enjoying being back on the road again?

NF: I love the road… I love being on tour… and I’m really proud of this tour too, I’m triggering lots of audio and visual things live which no ones ever done before so it’s a really interesting production.

OAH: The album is a lot denser in places have you bought in extra hands to recreate it live?

NF: No the opposite - its just me! I liked having a bit of a band and they were great players but yeah I’ve just stripped everything back to just me and my guitar to see how far I can push things… Then yeah I’m triggering loops and stuff from laptops for some extra parts and also some visual stuff so people can see me doing stuff with my feet behind my head… it’s a great production I’m really happy with it .

OAH: How do you approach the shows these days – do you miss the intimacy of the smaller shows or do u like being able to play to much bigger rooms?

NF: Well I still play a lot of smaller shows – I did a tour earlier in the year to little theatres and stuff… plus whenever we play internationally we end up playing a lot smaller places you know little 500 seater theatres and stuff.

OAH: So then - the new album is out and doing very well for itself… are you pleased with the progression to album two? There seems to be a much slicker and confident vibe to the while thing?

NF: Musically definitely, I was really trying to push everything really hard in both directions you know – to make the acoustic stuff sound really acoustic and stripped back and then to make the fuller sounding stuff really big you know… if we had an electronic sound then lets really explore that you know and make it really present… I’m incredibly happy with how it sounds.

OAH: Having had such big success last time out were you under more pressure from yourself or the record company when it came to making the record?

NF: I should have felt it but you know what I really didn’t… I learnt a lot from the first record so I was able to not make the same mistakes and really I was just happy to be making this the best record I could you know. I suppose the only difference was being in control a little more – the first album was very much like “Ok were making an album now” whereas here it was I suppose a bit more organic.

One of the best things someone said to me recently was that they’d heard the song “Resin on my heart strings” and said it sounded like someone had just flipped the top off my head and you were hearing the sounds inside it… that’s exactly what I was going for…

OAH: You made an appearance on Nevermind the Buzzcocks recently… are you finding yourself having to play the game a little more now there’s shareholders depending on you?

NF: Well no actually that was something I’d wanted to do for a while you know I was like “Pleeeeeease can I do it now” so yeah it was great…

OAH: Who’d have thought Alex James was such a funny guy eh?

NF: Yeah absolutely, a great guy. Noel Fielding was a big thing for me as well meeting him… I’m a big Mighty Boosh fan…

OAH: How do you feel the writing of these songs in terms of lyrics and themes has developed since “…Robots” the quirkiness seems to have been dialled down…

NF: Well I think the lyrics are very precise and fit what I want from them very nicely… there’s all kinds of stuff really you know, I’ve been through a lot writing it - from being in a relationship, breaking up, getting back together with them and then breaking up… all that’s in there.

Actually the song “Resin in my heartstrings” got me into a lot of trouble as id started writing it when I was with someone, then we broke up and it kind of became a break up song so then when we got back together they were like “what happened to that lovely little song you were writing? Can I hear it…?” I was like errrr….

OAH: Cue uncomfortable conversation…

NF: Haha – yeah absolutely! that got me into some real trouble!

OAH: The guitar seems to have taken a back seat this time out… I remember last time we spoke you mentioned that the guitars were kind of in there to appease people that might not like the songs like you were lacking confidence in the material – are you feeling more confident now to strip those elements away?

NF: Well the guitar is still there and really just as intricate as it ever was you know… I’d say the playing is perhaps now a little more “for the song” rather than building a song around a great riff…

OAH: Are you still taking lessons? (Newton learnt the guitar under acoustic genius Eric Roche)

NF: Yeah when I can. I just went in with Clive Cowell who’s an awesome player… I’m actually looking at a project at the moment with Cornelius who produced some tracks for the album. He wants to look at doing a really instrumental record you know that I can really just use to play and push my playing as far as I can – that’s a really exciting possibility right now…

OAH: Finally - It’s a depressing time right now to be releasing a record with commercial downturns and the industry kind of falling apart – how do you see things panning out in the future from an artists point of view? Do you think we even need the traditional infrastructure of the industry?

NF: Well labels are still very useful for certain things like breaking new markets internationally and stuff so there is still some use… I don’t know honestly - I’m researching this a lot at the moment and trying to work out exactly how things can go but yeah the web is exciting there’s lots to be done with it – its all just so time consuming… I have profiles everywhere and its almost a full time job just updating them all you know… well see how things go… its an uncertain time for sure though.

One thing that is certain right now though is that our dreadlocked hero certainly isn’t heading off anywhere anytime soon – a sold out UK tour is well underway and with new album Rebuilt by Humans still sitting pretty in the upper reaches of the album chart we can rejoice in this most unlikely of national hero’s for a long time to come…

At The Risk Of Sounding LIke Fearne Cotton

2009-11-20T08:20:00.001-08:00

I Am loving this right now... was late picking up the album but man was it worth the wait. If you too have yet to let this band into your life do so very soon

Make it your mission for the weekend

Out With The Claws

2009-11-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

A little earlier this year, in the course of answering a brief for a client who was looking for some music for a specific purpose, I stumbled across a whole scene happening in France at the moment rooted in Ambient. Id always strayed away from it as a genre as musically I like stuff to grab me and tug at my heartstrings and ultimately by its very definition Ambient is virtually incapable of doing so.

The more interesting stuff though that struck me were artists like El Heath who rather than focus solely on ambience as the basis of the piece, remained focused on songs and melodies and simply amplified its impact by way of stunning atmospherics along the way.

This pervading mood of well “mood” has thus, been a major reference point for me all year.

One artist with a definite knack for creating cinematic, sweeping moods is Candy Claws – freshly signed to Dublins Indiecater Records and one of my finds of the last few weeks. (indeed it even did the unthinkable and finally shook Track A Tiger from my car stereo!)

Candy Claws have hit on a delicately poised blueprint across their debut album “In the dreams of the sea life”; Matching spidery acoustic guitars and fragmented melodies with swathes of ultra-reverb and atmospheric static to end up coming on like the beautiful lovechild of Bon Iver and My Bloody Valentine.

Through the likes of “Catameran” and “Lantern Fish” these whispery/thundery (delete as appropriate) songs often threaten to buckle under the weight of their own melancholy but recalling the likes of Grizzly Bear and Oslo’s Uno Moller, this deliciously battered round the edge brand of lo-fi-folk (phew) sails through and in doing so creates an unexpected sense of understated (naturally) euphoria.

A treat to behold and one you should be checking out at your earliest convenience

www.myspace.com/candyclaws

Diving Knife (acoustic) - Candy Claws Online World Tour - Day 1 from Candy Claws on Vimeo.

Heads Up # 21 - Mark Pavey

2009-11-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes preconceptions can be a bad thing – indeed as the protégé of Folk icon Davy Graham, Mark Pavey has something of a legacy to live up to on the release his debut self titled album.

Where Pavey has come up trumps though is by shying away from the tired clichés that so much modern folk seems to fall into, and instead finding his own voice throughout – keeping the histrionics to a minimum and crafting a delicate, concise debut collection.

Dressing his songs in tasteful washes of acoustic guitars and pianos, Pavey clearly has a cinematic feel to production and it’s the flashes of strings and interesting counterpoints that provide the drama throughout – all the while however managing to retain focus where it needs to be – on the songs, and the everyman vocals (recalling the ilkes of Damon Gough and Steven Fretwell for two)

A subtle little gem all told then from Pavey who has set his stall out as a songwriter of some note. Definitely one to keep an eye on

Rest Your Head On My Shoulder (Or How Michael Kiwanuka is Fearne-Cotton-Bound)

2009-11-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

I was browsing through the archives of this ere blog the other day when I noticed I was fast approaching the mini milestone of 100 posts - perhaps not insanely productive but all the same a cause for minor celebration (Ive got something a bit special planned for #100)

It kinda got me thinking though about the kinds of stuff that gets covered here - while heavy on post rock, metal, indie and singer songwriters, there's very little in the way of blues, soul, jazz and funk - all genres Im a massive fan of, so why so little coverage?

Well in truth, one of the criteria for this blog is not just music being NEW in the sense of it being freshly released but also new in the sense that it has to add something to the canon. Music that rather than just rehashing influences and "tune a day" songbooks actually adds something to its surrounding and deserves its place at the table with the artists that have fed into its inception.

Its exactly this for instance that frequently stops me posting on a lot of the blues stuff that I come across - so much of it simply plays within both itself and the long established framework, that you genuinely couldnt (in any good consience) hold it up against the likes of Muddy and Robert and John Lee, and not expect to get laughed at. I mean man alive; even John Mayer these days seems to think that white boy blues began and ended with Eric Claptons designer suit phase...

Anyway - all of this (in a very roundabout way) is bringing me to the subject of todays missive - one Michael Kiwanuka.

Id been skirting around Mr K for a while now, via the wonders of myspace (how did we ever listen to music in the old days before Myspace when the world was black and white?!) but only recently had the pleasure of the seeing the man live and having done so Im already scouting the diary to see when I can go again.

Currently gigging around the South London acoustic scene, Kiwanuka evokes all the best bits of your favourite Soul and Blues compilations and drapes his soulful vocals across delicately constructed mosaics of folk and blues to create one of the most exciting sets Ive seen in a veeeeeery long time. I fully realise this all sounds very hyperbolic but when YOU'VE spent 20 minutes experiencing near constant goosebumps you might start to understand.

While its easy to admire on a very superficial level; hes young, good looking, immensley likeable and very natural on the stage it goes much deeper than that. You see - by truly understanding the work that has gone into the music before his arrival, Kiwanuka effortlessly croons his way through his wonderfully judged songs with a guile and a confidence virtually unknown in one so young.

Then - when you think on paper it couldnt get any better - comes THE VOICE... Rich, soulful, effortlessly rising to angelic cresendos and then falling to a heartfelt whisper - all delivered with a smile from underneath his peaked cap.

In short Ladies and Gentleman, we have an artist, that I can firmly say (without the faintest trace of self aggrandizing rhetoric) is more than deserving of his place alongside the likes of Otis and Marvin and Aretha and the good Revered... That this is a 22 year old BRITISH songwriter is all the more reason to celebrate. People join hands and rejoice - a world class performer is among us.

Having been so devestatingly blown away last week in small intimate surroundings, the "indie" part of me is going to be genuinely gutted when at some point during 2010 the likes of Fearne Cotton breathlessly tell us that shes "absolutely lovin" songs like 'Rest', but at the same time it wont really matter, because such a crossover will mean that justice will have been done and this young man will be reaping the plaudits that his music so richly deserves.

I urge you to stop whatever it is your doing at the very second and head on over to www.myspace.com/mikeksongs and check him out for yourself - there is no better way of putting a smile on your face this cold November morning.

Heads up #21 - Stylusboy

2009-11-04T08:57:00.001-08:00

I have to say Ive been a fan of Steve Jones songwriting for a while, both with his scuzzy pop band Lowdrive, (creator of some of the most hummable tunes to come out of coventry in a looong while (pay attention Tom Clarke!) and now under his Stylusboy moniker.

Stripping away the fuzzy guitars of his previous band Jones has managed to put together a lovely debut ep of hushed folk pop - bedecked in lush acoustic guitars and pretty little counterpoints that pop up out of nowhere, providing unexpected pockets of uber melodic fun.

Unafraid to wear his heart on his guitar strap throughout, these homerecorded demos offer up a real "one to watch" for anyone of a singer songwriter (think Badly Drawn Boy, Steven Fretwell that kinda vibe) bent. Ive put a live video below of the boy himself at the recent EP launch - for now though your well advised to get hold of a copy of the Fingerprints ep for yourself soon!!

Lovely stuff

Tracking A Tiger (Or how Deep Elm has increased my "listening pile" massively)

2009-11-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Mrs Hipster loves tigers. Really she does - our house is festooned with animal print - she wants to get one to live in the garden - indeed we spent half an hour the other week just watching a few of the big cats enjoying their dinner at the Zoo. It has to be said that ultimately Im not half as interested. "Can we get one?" she says..."er no" I say.

Then about a week or so ago something arrived in my inbox that made me readdress my big cat based opinions.

Fresh out on Deep Elm Records (who have celebrated their return to the fray with a string of immense releases) TRACK A TIGER have been soundtracking my life for the best part of 6 weeks now. To say that I am a little obsessed with this band would be something of an understatement.

I FELT THE BULLET HIT MY HEART, the bands new album, is subtle. it doesnt so much grab you as slide up to your ear and gently start whispering sweet nothings while your on the phone. You can try and try and try and these songs will not leave your head. Seriously cant be done...

Take "Dont Let The Nightlight Dance". Opening the album with a short scree of noise before unfurling into gently plucked guitars and glitchy beats and then finally bursting into life with a thrum of emphatic synths and a driving drum set all joining in on the act. Harmonies abound and by the time the band get into the second verse theyre into faux Bee Gees falsetto.

To be clear this is all within the first 90 seconds of a record that at 12 songs long is beyond an embarassment of riches. THis is quite simply wonderful.

Unafraid to throw all manner of genres at the wall - folk, country, rock, indie, bubblegum synth driven pop - these disparate avenues are held together by two things - firstly the knack of crafting perfect pop moments from whatever tools and framework might happen to be at hand and also the ability to just pull delicately weaved melodies out of thin air and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand rigidly to attention.

This is an album you will find yourself slowly starting to obsess over the way you did Chute Too Narrow or The Soft Bulletin all those years ago... I tried to describe these songs accurately only the other day and the best I can come up with (even now afetr all this time) is Fleet Foxes meeting up The Shins to cover My Bloody valentine songs with the Bee Gees... that still doesnt really do it justice...

All I can say is that while my listening pile continues to grow you should do yourself and let these tigers get your teeth into you at the earliest possible...

Find out more at Deep Elm Records

A Pack of Unruly foals (or why have the major labels still not clocked on yet?!)

2009-11-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

Signs that maybe the majors are finally catching on, with the news that Universal Music Classics & Jazz is making its entire catalogue available online without copy protection as part of an experiment to gauge fans' demand for MP3 tracks.

Whilst im sure the suit jacket and jeans and combo brigade currently occupying the boardrooms of most major labels would agree (with themselves) that this is an excellent step in the right direction, in my opinion though - surely this is a case of bolting the door not so much after the horse has bolted but after hes bolted, hitched his way to Bridgend, set up home with a girl called Stacey and fathered a ruck of unruly foals.

The demand for mp3 has been proven. Physical sales are down. Retail is all but dead. Ipod sales continue to go through the roof - how much more do we need to prove the demand is there?!

I concede - the classical and jazz markets are aimed traditionally at the older segments of the music buying populace but to my mind that argument is flawed in two major ways

1) The older ladies and gents are taking up the technology just as rapidly as the young uns... to not cater for them in this way is just ignorant

2) If people are complaining that Jazz and Classical are dwindling genres sales wise why are the tracks not available to the kids that are using mp3 as their format of choice?

It all just seems such an arse backward way of doing things. As I have stated on here ad nauseum before MP3. Is. The. Future. Hell MP3 is the PRESENT for that matter, the genie is out of the bottle and no amount of DRM or clever Myspace hustling is going to change that - the sooner everyone finds a more effective way of working within the medium rather than trying so desperately to fire fight and protect themselves in some way the better.

Without affirmative, positive, forward thinking action (mind you some would say this should have happened ten years ago) MP3 will soon be remembered as doing to the music business what Ebola has done for African tourism.

Theres my inflamatory thought for the day anyway - thoughts anyone?!

I Cant Emphasise Enough How Much I Love This Band Right Now

2009-10-23T13:08:00.001-07:00

More to come over the weekend

Heads Up #19 - Public Radio

2009-10-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

With EMO starting to wear thin on the ground, we return (as ever) to the trusted folk of Deep Elm to find out whats really worth listening to. Refreshingly as ever the guys have uncovered a few gems of late (Not least Track A Tiger - more of whom when I find the right superlatives and many others from outside of the labels usual stomping ground) and Public Radio are my own personal favourites right now.

Welding semi angular guitar rock onto a flatbed of Postal Service esque electronica (all dusty drums and glitchy beats) proves to be something of a masterstroke as the band use the extra textures to create wonderful jumping off points for a series of stratospheric choruses - most pertinently on "Forgot Love" which comes on like Simon Neil fronting a chemically enhanced U2. I say this as no bad thing.

An excellent debut for sure and one that proves that all is not lost in the wilderness of post-Weintz alternative rock.

Five Minutes with... Kambodsja

2009-10-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Were still really diggin Kambodsjas recent "Marionette You Are Mine" album and decided it was time to try and catch up with the guys. We had a quick chat with the boys ahead of a weekends pre production in preparation for a new album (hopefully) out early next year...

OAH: Hello Kambodsja how are you?

Jørgen: I have a fever and a running nose, so I really feel like crap
Tom: Besides a headache, great!
Baard: Hungover and tired of life.
Kambodsja in general: Great!

OAH: it says on your press release that one of your labelmates has dubbed you “the greatest hardcore band to come out of norway” – how do you feel about that? Who your influences growing up and getting into music for the first time?

KB: First off, we would like to thank pipedream for that remark. They
really deserve to be mentioned as much as possible. They are an awesome
band.

As for the hardcore thing, Norway has a huge amount of really good
hardcore bands in different styles and we love to be mentioned in the
same sentence as these bands. On the other hand, we do not really
identify with the harcore scene. Even though we are hugely inspired my
the likes of Snöras, JR.Ewing, Kaospilot, Manhattan Skyline etc, we
think of ourselves as more than just a harcore band. Our inspiration comes
from Metal, prog, jazz, classical, post punk, post rock, indie, pop and
noise as well as hardcore. But when we make music it tends to be closest
to hardcore and metal. We have no rules about this, but it tends to be
more fun to play brutal and aggressive music - especially live.

When we started out playing we were mostly into acts like NOFX
and Millencollin, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine etc, but we
grew more and more into harder and darker things as we got older. Bands
that probably inspired us the most into the sound we have today comes from
different acts such as Botch, Mr.bungle, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, King
Crimson, and Converge. The Norwegian band Motorpsycho has also been a huge
inspiration to start making music, at least for Tom and Jørgen – which
started playing together in the middle of the 90s.

OAH: Your sound suggests a lot of American influences have you ever toured over there?

KB: No, but we really hope to do that sometime soon.

OAH: Are u interested in breaking into that market?

KB: Of course. Isn´t that every little punk kid’s dream, and we’re still a
bunch of punk kids, are we not? (denial, denial)

OAH :How do you react to people suggesting that hardcore and metal are tired genres… how do you go about trying to write music that’s fresh and interesting yet still appeals to your core fanbase?

KB: We kind of agree, there is a lot of boring metal and hardcore acts out
there, but all these bands mean something special someone. They love there own music,
and they have fun. Its what really mathers in our opinion.

As for songwriting… we write music for ourself. We hope people like it, but it doesn’t really mather if they don’t. Don’t get me wrong, we REALLY do like it when they do, but we can write music for everyone. We don’t really have any rules, if we feel like writing something crazy, like a 10min song that keeps changing every 10 seconds we will, if we feel like writing a more standard pop song with a catchy chorous, we will. We bring in inspiration from all over, and its never a goal to write a harcore/metal song, it just usually turns out that way.

We do like to experiment when we write songs, to go places we havent gone before and to aproch writing the song in a different way. Its always in the back of our minds to try and add twists that makes the song feel different and stand out from the other songs we’re written before.

OAH: What are you guys up to for the rest of the year? Can we expect a new album soon?

KB: Yes, we’re actually going to record our new album this weekend. But this
is just a pre production we do ourselves. Hopefully someone likes the demo
and wants to support a studio session for us.

Find out more for yourself at www.kambodsja.com