Dark Was the Night

By an unexpected chance of fortune I have Dark Was the Night compilation which was meant to be released on the 16th February. However, if you ask the nice people at Rough Trade they will happily give you one in advance, because that’s what happened with me today.

I asked for the CD not because I’m cheeky, but rather I got a tip-off that it existed today and as I need a lot of help when I’m in Rough Trade asked the person who was busily running about getting me the Alele Diane album. I would love to say I bought it straight off knowing all about the charitable nature behind the double disc compilation, but all I knew was that it was a charity related release and had Tightrope by Yeasayer on it as well as tracks from Bon Iver and the New Pornographers. Does that make me terrible? Possibly, but now I’ve read up on it, I can say I would have bought it for the principles behind it as well as its contents.

Dark Was the Night is organised by The Red Hot Organisation that raises awareness for AIDS as well as donating proceeds from artistic projects to research and education campaigns related to the condition.  Sometimes it is easy to become cynical about HIV and AIDS campaigns because I would have hoped after 20 years of them people might know the basics, but even in Western and so called ‘educated’ societies there is still some ignorance and stigma that needs to be stamped out. Red Hot Organisation attempts to bring HIV and AIDS into the public domain while trying to distance itself from the conventional, they argue inefficient, media channels. Which is good, because discussion helps people understand therefore hopefully encourage progress in research and programs to tackle the disease.

As to the compilation, there is a good range of artists whom I like contributing exclusive tracks, see here for a full track listings. I was disappointed with the Yeasayer track because I guess I was expecting a version similar to that on the Blogoteque, and people have said the disc version hasn’t been mixed as well as it could have been, which makes me hope that should it be released on an EP or album it sounds better. Which brings me to some past loves, The New Pornographers were great, but their last album left something to be desired in comparison to the the releases like Mass Romantic. Their song on the compilation, Hey Snow White, a cover of one of Dan Bejar’s songs (a member of the New Pornographers) isn’t that inspiring and I am told the original (which is true of all of their covers) is much better. Likewise I liked Arcarde Fire’s first album and EP but never really clicked in with later releases to the point where I recognise their voices but don’t enjoy listening. However, leaving aside laments of times passed, Brackett, WI by Bon Iver is wonderful as is expected of Bon Iver. The slight problem with compilations is that I’m not always certain who I’m listening to, and as I’m holed up in the library at the moment, I feel bad for keeping on checking the artists instead of Cdks but I definately prefer the first disc, but that might be due to more generalised familiarity of the artists.

Anyway, go out and buy it, even you only like a few of the tracks, its for charity, and don’t let me catch you whoring it form the internet, because that is more terrible than buying it for just the music – you might also hear some new artists, and you get to hear Tightrope, which I still like because I’ve heard what it can be…

Filed under: Articles, Arcade Fire, Beirut, bon iver, Dark Was The Night, MANY OTHERS, Red Hot Organisation, The New Pornographers, Yeasayer

E-Interview with Charles from Slow Club

Before this all the interviews for Hundreds & Thousands had been done in person on the days one of us was seeing the artist or band play, Slow Club have been too busy and so agreed for an e-mail interview. This was the first I’d been involved in and so it seems a bit disjointed as I was unsure of the etiquette, how many questions to ask? And how to ask without knowing the answers, so I apologise if it reads slightly oddly. But here goes…

Roo – Hello Charles, Any clues as to when the album will be out?

Charles – Spring 2009 all being well.

Roo – What was it like playing at the Union Chapel, did you get free tea?

Charles – It was incredible. I didn’t have any free tea though. I was drinking stella.

R – It is a week ’till Christmas, and you have released a single for it, I intend to spend the entire festive time wrapped in a blanket watching TV and eating leftovers, but what are your plans for Christmas period?

Filed under: Interview, Christmas!, Slow Club

Moshi Moshi / Wichita Xmas Shindig at the Hoxton Bar & Grill – Part 1

On the 16th December I woke up in the afternoon after a stressful night shift and proceeded to have a brunch-esque meal. I had been so excited about the Moshi Moshi – Wicita Christmas gig I had been squeeing like a little girl whenever people had asked me about my plans for the week. I cycled to the Hoxton Bar & Grill and arrived early at the busy venue, feeling awkward with the large amount of exposure preventing clothing and alone without an option of sitting down or even nustling myself in at a bar I shuffled quietly into back room where the bands were going to be playing to wait for my friends.

Looking around I scouted James Yuill talking at the bar, the Söderberg sisters of First Aid Kit sat in the corner looking like they were at a school dance for a final year, but they had skipped some years and weren’t allowed to drink. I also spotted a middle aged couple who I seemed to be the parents or relatives of the young artists. Mingling about was also the members of Sky Larkin, clad in impressive Christmas costumes.

Slowly as I supped my beer the room filled and while I still waited for my friends First Aid Kit took to the stage. I had high expectations from the teenage duo and these expectations were met and then some. Although I’m still slightly frightened by just how young the two look, there is no doubt that they are talented indeed, it was sweet that they seemed to looking for support from their parents/guardians. They played for far too short for my liking and look forward to the duo coming back again, and if not, I’ve been to Scandinavia before and more than happy to go again, although I will probably wait until it gets a bit warmer.

Slow Club as ever were superb, using Sky Larkin’s instruments for unknown reasons, playing their Christmas single among their other repetoir, the pair were ther usual delightful selves!

Tom arrived as Slow Club began and will talk a bit of the other bands playing that night, which was an excellent way to begin the Christmas period…

Later in the evening I interviewed James Yuill in an inebriated state, and still haven’t listened back to the 18min + of recording, because I’m terrified of what I might have said.

Filed under: Gigs, Christmas!, Embarressment, First Aid Kit, Hoxton Bar, Moshi Moshi, Slow Club, Wichita

Woah Leonard, I didn’t see you there.

So Hallelujah is making history, for the first time in 51 years the same song has sat in the first and second rankings of the singles chart. I was expecting Alexandra Burke to take the prize, suspected Jeff Buckely of making top ten and he again outdos my expectations of him; however, what I did not consider was people buying the Leonard Cohen original, enough to put it into the top 40 for the first time, the original came in at 36.

That is frankly remarkable, has there ever been 3 versions of a song in the charts at the same time? It appears the X-Factor is making the populous wake up and smell the chords of some much better artists. Alexandra Burke may have got 576,000 singles sold but that doesn’t mean she is as talented as the other two. I also feel it shows just how powerful the media and especially the internet is at getting lots of people riled up and encouraged to go do something, its been commented on lots of time, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen a “Let’s make an old single / comedy song / outlier a number one for Christmas” that must have got a few hundred thousand people not only nodding their head at the monitor but also clicking purchase on some website.

I did not listen to the chart being announced, partly because my ridiculously hectic and stressful week has come to end and I have come home for Christmas, and when my mother told me she going to roast some parsnips in maple syrup to go with a rabbit stew, I collapsed into our sofa and began watching the Antiques’ Roadshow (it was a bloody good episode, let me tell you), other reasons for not listening was that I don’t have a wireless and and realplayer hasn’t spent enough time on the naughty step for me to update it to listen to the radio online.

Filed under: News, Alexandra Burke, Christmas #1, Jeff Buckley, Katy Perry, Leonard Cohen

Alexandra Burke won the X-Factor, Leonard Cohen rejoices?

Oh wow! Alexandra Burke won X-factor! I was reading the BBC news website for my daily underdose of current affairs when I saw the link and I skim read the article, apparently 8 million people voted for her. I don’t know much about X-factor other than I presume she won some good loot as well as singing with her hero (Beyonce) and a ridiculous amount of publicity. All X-factor winners also receive the de facto prize of Christmas #1, for the last 3 years this has occurred and a cursory glance at Christmas #1s show that the winners of these talent shows normally get to the top spot. This is not surprising as the publicity they attain blows out of the water most other competing acts, for instance 8 million people not only sat down to watch the program but decided it was the worth their effort to vote this talent to win the competition, even if a fraction of those people go out and buy the single she has got the place.

I was just about to launch into a mini attack of programs like X-factor and then I paused and realised that would be uncalled for, this Alexandra seems to have impressed some sort of judging panel and 8 million people, her releases will not affect me and I probably won’t even realise I’m listening to her, so good for her.

However, Alexandra Burke’s debut single (and therefore #1 within a fortnight) is going to be Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen released Hallelujah in 1984, since then it has been recorded for release around 170 times, notably by Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley, the latter’s version has been described as close to perfection any song can achieve apparently, I disagree. Buckley sounds like he is whinging and preaching way too much in it – I don’t think that’s the point of the song there Jeff. I am well aware Leonard Cohen might not be to everyone’s taste, and the original could, if you were malicious, be described as a monotone droning of a poem set to music. I would say it is more a poem than a song in the original but its still pretty good, I guess it depends which version you hear first and what you expect from it. Which bring me to the thing I’m dreading and will be annoyed by in the coming weeks. Hallelujah is an excellent song, but sometimes people get confused as to who wrote it first, I’m hoping it’s fairly obvious to Miss Burke’s fan base that she isn’t singing it for the first time, but more importantly (to me anyway) is that they are well informed and don’t credit Buckley. I really don’t care how much his cover is loved, I get a little twitchy when people believe he wrote it, and no kiddiwinks, Leonard Cohen did not go back in time to cover it.

I guess it’s just a pet hate, and I don’t like it when I don’t realise a song I thought was the original is in fact a cover, for several months I thought Peter, Bjorn and John’s Young Folks was a Japanese song (I was in Japan at the time and Shugo Tokumaru was being played a lot, I am also fairly certain but blatantly mistaken that there is a version sung in Japanese…).
I agree the original Hallelujah may not be the best version, but credit where credit’s due. For the record my personal favourite cover is the Rufus Wainwright version, it’s one of the few songs of his I like. I guess Cohen himself is pretty pleased with it, it’s like the UK are giving him one big Christmas present, of royalties.

Lastly, what an odd song to be Christmas #1, it’s not very cheery or Christmasy…

Filed under: Articles, News, Alexandra Burke, Christmas #1, Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, X-Factor

Dr. Robert Beeching makes baby polar ice-caps cry.

In the 1950s the railway network of Britain were nationalised and bleeding public funding; rationing was coming to an end and people were able to have disposable income which they spent on cars and fuel to go about in them. Furthermore the previous two world wars had led to maintenance of the tracks running a bit lax and repairs were required, again burdening the Treasury. By 1955 the railways were not meeting costs and money was being mismanaged and in the early ’60s the government sought drastic action. Enter Dr. Beeching stage right.

Filed under: Gigs, 93ft East, iLiKETRAiNS, live

Santa couldn’t have planned it better…

Moshi Moshi and Wichita records are holding a joint Christmas party on the the 16th December, there are a limited number of tickets on sale and they haven’t released the full line up yet. However, I bought a ticket when it was First Aid Kit playing because I would quite like to see them live (I bought their EP yesterday, which was odd because I didn’t think it was being released here until February next year – it’s as delightful as expected), this morning I checked the event’s website again to see if there was further clues as to who I’ll be seeing, a polite silver bauble said Slow Club. Well, this shouldn’t really have been as surprising as both bands have Christmas songs either being released or available on the internet, and also pretty much guarantees me a wonderful evening. So that leaves but three questions:

1) Who will the other two bands be?

I’ve not noticed any Christmas themed songs by other artists on the labels, so it shall be a mystery.

Then using the might of the internet Tom and I found that the other artists will be James Yuill and Sky Larkin: the latter of which isn’t turning me on as much as the other bands but I’ll wait till after the gig to pass a more definite judgement.

2) Will one band get up on stage with the other?

I know I whinged a bit about Slow Club having other artists up with them, but just imagine for a moment First Aid Kit and Slow Club singing together… At the moment I am going through a heavy phase with respect to these artists so this thought actually makes me whoozy.

3) Will Slow Club take me to court?

Slow Club are at the Buffalo Bar this Friday in conjunction with Twee as Fuck and I was considering going, and although I bought the ‘Christmas party’ ticket before I knew they were playing there the courts might see it differently and I’ll end up with a restraining order again…

Filed under: News, First Aid Kit, James Yuill, Moshi Moshi records, Sky Larkin, Slow Club, Stalking, Twee as Fuck, Wichita

Music In Films (or why I love Wes Anderson)

I hadn’t really thought that much about music in films before, or how it’s chosen. Whenever I see I film I tend to go, ‘oh hey guys, that was pretty good’ and hardly ever think about the music. Turns out there’s a reason for that. Most films don’t have fantastic music, it’s usually there to serve it’s purpose and add to the whole cinematic effect, not distract from it. But there are a few out there which get it spot on perfect, which lead to my obsession with Wes Anderson.

I was making a list of films with good music in them (or moments of good music at least) and Wes Anderson kept popping up. Sure there’s your Steeler’s Wheel Resevoir Dogs moment, and Dueling Banjos from Deliverance, but that’s just one moment in the whole film. Then there’s your John Williams themes from Spielberg, Lucas and Chris Columbus. Then there’s your Wes Anderson. And that’s a WHOLE other kettle of fish.

If you’ve not seen a Wes Anderson film, I command you to do so. Any one will do, I don’t mind, just as long as the amount of his film watching increases. My favourites are The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited, but the rest are brilliant too: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (er, yea I knitted that hat… obv). Dear old Wes uses a lot of folky rock especially 60s and 70s stuff, and seems to heart The Kinks and The Rolling Stones just as much as I do. He always seems to pick the most appropriate song for the scene, adding to it, making you aware of the music but at the same time not detracting from the moment, making it all the more memorable. He also has the best and most appropriate use of Sigur Rós ever (none of this BBC sob-story montage moment)  in The Life Aquatic where they find the Jaguar Shark. Starálfur is played, and it’s just perfect. Honestly.

The Life Aquatic also heavily features Seu Jorge, who does brilliant acousitc-only Bowie covers. In Portuguese. It’s the music you didn’t know you were missing, until you listened and realised you just can’t believe how much of your life you’ve wasted not hearing it. Big A*.

Having professed my love for Wes Anderson, I have to profess it for Zach Braff too. Admittedly I’ve only seen Garden State, but the soundtrack is epic. The most memorable scene being where it’s raining and they’re all standing on top of the digger (or whatever it is) looking over the big hole in the ground (or other geological anomaly), and then Simon & Garfunkel start up with The Only Living Boy In New York. I had a little cry I think. I’m a bit soft like that… Braff also has big love for Men At Work’s Colin Hay, who features in an episode of Scrubs (you know, the dead guy playing the guitar).

I asked people which films they thought had brilliant music, and the replies were as diverse as anything. Including Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, The Graduate, Back To The Future, Jurassic Park and many others. So it seems that music in films seems to affect everyone differently, but it can definitely make or break a film. However film can also make the  music, as it was The Graduate that propelled Simon & Garfunkel as did The Life Aquatic for our friend Seu Jorge.

Oh, and then there’s the Spanish version of Hotel California in The Big Lebowksi, making sure you remember that ‘nobody ffuks with the Jesus.’

Filed under: Articles, films, soundtracks

You Should Always Carry a First Aid Kit

It’s true, they are remarkably useful things to have on you, from paper-cut related boo-boos to bike wipe-out injuries; antiseptic and bandages are always good to have nearby.

Also: First Aid Kit are a sister duo hailing from the Stockholm area of Sweden and are scarily young; 18 and 15 year olds shouldn’t be this interesting and sounding like they have wandered in from the woods after a game of hide and seek got out of hand allowing them plenty of time to interact with the critters around perfecting a woodland folk sound – folk as in the music genre, not elves and goblins and legendary beasts of the woods of Lapland… First Aid Kit sound like they have spent a long time working hard in some plighted industry and have been smoking for years and drinking whiskey on the nights they aren’t working at the mill/factory/mine/sweatshop, and girls singing like that is actually a reason to have ears.  Dampening down the hyperbole, from the few songs I’ve heard from their myspace I will be following them closely because they stand out above the other folk bands I’ve heard recently.

An EP is being released in February but to sate the appetites they have whetted they are playing at 2 venues this month:

15th Dec – 12 Bar Club

16th Dec – Hoxton Bar

They have also in the last day released onto the expanse of the internet a Christmas song, which is good and propels the thoughts that festive songs might not always have to be terrible…

If myspacing the duo don’t confuse with First Aid Kit from Norway; those guys are a defunct unimpressive Emo group, likewise there are some other non-Scandinavian bands knocking about, but there go, a popular name it seems.

Filed under: Articles, First Aid Kit, folk

Slow Club @ the Union Chapel – A lament with tears of joy.

I heart Slow Club.

There I finally came out and said it, I HEART SLOW CLUB! Tom digs Bon Iver lots, it’s clear to see and we all know it, and I would say I have a similar relationship with Slow Club. Except instead of going to a shack in the woods Charles and Rebecca went to the fair and went down the helter-skelter, but while listening to Leonard Cohen, and as they thump off the slide they collide with guitars and drums; the resulting sound is wondrous.
I’m practically stalking the duo having seen them 4 times in the past year, and the last time being this Monday at the Union Chapel in Islington. It had a Christmas theme what with it being on the 1st day of Xmas and therefore finally the vindication we annually wait for to start gorging ourselves with mince pies. Foolishly I thought the name of the venue was just a name, instead it was an actual chapel that uses events to ensure its coffers are nicely filled for repairs and community work so when I arrived, I queued and took off my scarf and gloves. This was definitely a bad move because chapels don’t tend to be insulated and although I thought the venue was great with a gentle flickering of candles on the upper tier; impressive stain-glass windows and a dominating pulpit, I was quite cold at times. However, this was directly proportional to the acts, the guy between Jay Jay Pistolet and Slow Club was so slow and uninspiring he actually dampened my metabolism and sent me into uncontrollable shivers until Slow Club came along to fill me with warmth from my ears to my toes. I quite liked sitting on the pews and it was appropriate with the Christmas theme and it was all very civilised with the people serving tea much more visible than the rumoured bar, and is there anything better than tea and Slow Club?

Filed under: Articles, Gigs, Jay Jay Pistolet, Limerance, Slow Club, Union Chapel