Some of you reading this might have heard of the band Pinback. Even more of you will have heard Pinback, as they once featured as soundtrack music on The OC. Rob Crow is one of the co-leaders of that band, and it will come as no surprise that this isn't really a million miles away from Pinback.
The main shared featured is the quirky melodies. They manage to stay the right side of tuneless whilst certainly not being straight down the line, in a similar way to J. Robbins of Jawbox/Burning Airlines/Channels "fame". Also similar to Pinback are a number of arpeggioed acoustic guitar lines, which are a feature in the excellent "Up". Much of the album sounds programmed on a sequencer, but unless you're a real purist it doesn't make too much difference to the listen as a whole.
A couple of complaints are that, while the album starts very well, it does tend to blend into one big song as many of the structures and melodies in every song are similar even though they are undeniably well executed. And anyone that remembers some of Rob's older output with Thingy will be disappointed to know that there is nothing as upbeat as some of that stuff.
All in all this is a pretty good listen but mostly this will appeal to die-hard Pinback/Rob Crow fans (all two of them... I'm kidding! C'mon!) but is unlikely to gain him much exposure and it's debatable whether it deserves any more than that. Calling a song "I Hate You, Rob Crow" and including the "Single Version"(!) which is actually longer than the album version of said song wins him some bonus points though.
9.4.07
BIS/THE STAR FIGHTER PILOT/KID VOODOO/HOTPANTS ROMANCE - Satan's Hollow, Manchester, Sun April 7th
It does seem a tad inappropriate to be in a venue called “Satan's Hollow”, complete with its Hell-inspired décor including a ruddy great Devil breaking through one of its walls, but I suppose no-one here is at all concerned with the resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but rather with the resurrection of top 90s Glaswegian “Teen-C” pioneers Bis. It does feel like they've never been away, as when Bis ended a few years back they simply increased their numbers with real, actual bassist and drummer under the moniker “Data Panik”, who sadly only managed one single before disappearing due to lack of interest. But tonight is all about the past, as this short tour is to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of the band's debut album, 'The New Transistor Heroes'. Will they be able to pull it off? Is it possible to play Teen-C anthems convincingly when you're pushing 30? Or will it be an embarrassing, pathetic stab at reclaiming youth, like someone's dad reading Q and listening to Kaiser Chiefs in an attempt to appear “with it” and “hip”? Let's! Find! Out!
Openers Hotpants Romance are three teenage girls in hot pants (hence the name), playing basic, sloppy, simplistic pop-punk in the vein of the first Donnas album or the much-missed (by no-one) Period Pains. What they lack in musical talent they make up for in moxie (whatever that is) and attitude, and while I don't think I'll be buying their CDs any time soon they were entertaining enough, and certainly an appropriate opener.
More polished but much, much less appropriate were Kid Voodoo, a 60s-style rockabilly band whose singer looks like a cross between Bill Nighy and Tom Petty. While they were undoubtedly very tight and good at what they did, they simply weren't suited to the gig, as the sea of bored 20-somethings-dressed-as-teenagers proved. In the right environment they'd no doubt be quite enjoyable, but they stuck out here like an English ship in Iranian waters. Satires, there. I am the next Ben Elton.
Next up was Star Fighter Pilot, just one man and his iBook, a bit like Get Cape Wear Cape Fly back before he/they/it got boring, except with a MIDI keyboard instead of a guitar. Actually, a better comparison would be Reggie & The Full Effect when he/they/it pretends to be Fluxuation – 80s-influenced electropop with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Not bad, but he merely flicked around at our attention before limping off rather than grabbing it by the throat, balls and ears.
So then, the pop group Bis! What a great set it was... probably. Unfortunately I had to leave to get the train just 4 songs into the set, but what songs they were: following the traditional spoken-word introduction (with several of the crowd chanting along, word-for-word, like Teen-C cult members), Bis opened with album opener 'Tell It To The Kids' and, if you ignored the balding heads of John Disco and Sci-Fi Steven, it was like being transported back a decade: the giddy enthusiasm, the energetic stage presence, the infectiously catchy pop songs, all still present and correct. The next three tracks were all singles of the time and all equally great: 'Sweet Shop Avengers', 'Starbright Boy' and, most excitingly for me, the now-slightly-outdated rant against majors pretending to be indies that is 'This is Fake DIY'. Lovely, lovely stuff. For just one night, one glorious night, Satan's Hollow was our church, Teen-C was our religion, and Bis were our prophets, preaching their message of cut-and-paste aesthetics, glitter with plastic jewellery, and child-like shoutalong teenage anthems. Let's hope their second coming is quicker than Christy-boy's – quicker than the Stone Roses's was, for that matter. Late-twenties-C Power!
6.4.07
TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS - Living With The Living (Touch and Go)
New album and new label for Mr Leo here after Lookout! Records went down the toilet thanks to Chris Appelgren's unique business plan: "I know, I'll sign a load of bands that will split up after one release for the label and totally ditch all the pop-punk bands that the label is famous for! I'll be rich!" Fool.
On to "Living With The Living" then. It's certainly an ambitious affair; 14 tracks with 3 weighing in at over the six-minute mark. But it's the "Me and Mia"-esque mod-pop-punk numbers that always grab the ear first with Ted Leo, and the albums begins with "The Sons of Cain", a highly upbeat tune that shows off Ted's excellent voice superbly. Later on there's "La Costa Brava", which reminds me, surprisingly, of Samiam! It's great. And the rocking "The World Stops Turning" starts with momentum and only gains it as the song continues.
There's a very interesting couplet of songs in the middle of the album too. First we have "A Bottle of Buckie". Now to my knowledge Ted Leo is from the USA, but this song's lyrical content suggests that Theodore of Leo must have some Scottish roots! There are lyrical references to Govan Hill, the banks of the Clyde, "neds" and of course, Buckfast. Very strange, but it's a fine song, and a surefire hit north of the border. Then there's "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb" which is pretty different to anything I've heard from him before, coming off as a more rock Fugazi and tearing into careless world leaders. Great stuff.
Most of this album sounds like classic Ted Leo, but he's tried enough different stuff to keep the listener and probably himself on their/his toes. It's an enjoyable listen (bar a couple of dull tracks and an embarrassing stab at reggae) and definitely worthy of your time. Especially the 2xLP which comes with an excellent voucher allowing you to download the album with five bonus tracks (the best of which is the stompy "Old Souls Know"). And no, this review will not be finishing with any puns or quips about these Pharmacists prescribing great music. Sorry.
On to "Living With The Living" then. It's certainly an ambitious affair; 14 tracks with 3 weighing in at over the six-minute mark. But it's the "Me and Mia"-esque mod-pop-punk numbers that always grab the ear first with Ted Leo, and the albums begins with "The Sons of Cain", a highly upbeat tune that shows off Ted's excellent voice superbly. Later on there's "La Costa Brava", which reminds me, surprisingly, of Samiam! It's great. And the rocking "The World Stops Turning" starts with momentum and only gains it as the song continues.
There's a very interesting couplet of songs in the middle of the album too. First we have "A Bottle of Buckie". Now to my knowledge Ted Leo is from the USA, but this song's lyrical content suggests that Theodore of Leo must have some Scottish roots! There are lyrical references to Govan Hill, the banks of the Clyde, "neds" and of course, Buckfast. Very strange, but it's a fine song, and a surefire hit north of the border. Then there's "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb" which is pretty different to anything I've heard from him before, coming off as a more rock Fugazi and tearing into careless world leaders. Great stuff.
Most of this album sounds like classic Ted Leo, but he's tried enough different stuff to keep the listener and probably himself on their/his toes. It's an enjoyable listen (bar a couple of dull tracks and an embarrassing stab at reggae) and definitely worthy of your time. Especially the 2xLP which comes with an excellent voucher allowing you to download the album with five bonus tracks (the best of which is the stompy "Old Souls Know"). And no, this review will not be finishing with any puns or quips about these Pharmacists prescribing great music. Sorry.
4.4.07
THE LEIF ERICSSON - self titled CD (Bombed Out)
At last! The Leif Ericsson's debut album has been a looooooooong time coming – longer than the Pylon album, the One Car Pile-Up album, Stone Roses' 'The Second Coming' and The Chinese Democracy put together! (Note: may be exaggeration). And, even then, they couldn't even be bothered to think of a title for it, the lazy layabouts. So, was it worth the wait? Read on and find out! I'm not going to tell you in the first paragraph, am I?
Probably the only band ever to be named after a Norse explorer who lived 1,000 years ago (cheers Wikipedia), the Leif Ericsson play straight-up singalong melodic punk in the vein of Snuff, which isn't too surprising considering that singer Will Farley (from 'Anchorman' and the inventor of the rusk) is also in Dogpiss and Billy No Mates with Snuff's Duncan Redmonds (husband of New Tricks actress Amanda). There's not a bad song amongst the eleven, my “special favourites” being the anthemic 'Göttingen', 'Aquaplane', 'Twelve Years in the Making' (probably about how long it's taken them to actually get around to releasing an album) and live favourite 'Little Pink Socks'.
As you can probably tell by the way I'm padding this review out with sentences like this one which you are reading now and which you are still reading even now and which should probably have had a comma or two in it already, I don't really have that much to write about this album, which in no way reflects its quality: if you enjoy melodic UK punk stuff then this should be at the top of your CD shopping list (assuming you've got the Great St Louis CD already, of course). If this had been released ten years ago when Fat Mike was in his Anglophile phase then no doubt he'd have been sniffing around them, but Fat Wreck's loss is Bombed Out's gain, I guess. The Leif Ericsson have been one of my favourite UK punk bands since I first saw them about four years ago, and this album was definitely worth waiting for.
To finish off, here are some Leif Ericson facts:
- Born c970, died c1020
- Lived in Iceland
- Thought to be the first European to land in North America
- Took a bloody age to record his first alb(that's enough Leif Ericson facts. Ed)
2.4.07
DO MAKE SAY THINK - You, You're A History in Rust (Constellation)
Post-rock isn't a genre that's to everyone's taste. Here in the UK we have Mogwai who are very popular and Godspeed! You Black Emporer enjoyed some mainstream attention for a while, but in general, most of the bands I would associate with post-rock are too meandering and not straightforward enough for your average music fan.
Do Make Say Think (labelmates of the aforementioned G!YBE) manage to keep a fairly happy medium between the noodlings and having memorable songs. The dynamic range on this album is huge; it can veer from acoustic arpeggios to amps-to-eleven rock without disarming the listener. The rockage is excellent, too, with the standout being "The Universe!", which has a great riff and storms along without much let-up. Also good is the epic "Executioner Blues", an almost symphonic number which goes bat-shit crazy at around the seven-minute mark.
Equally epic is "A With Living", which combines elements of Tortoise and Broken Social Scene (limited frame of reference here, people. I'm sure someone else could have compared it Polish neo-classical jazz or something) and features real actual singing and some lovely mournful horns towards the end.
I'm sure, as with many bands of this style, the live arena is the best place to experience them and I am looking forward to seeing them at the upcoming ATP vs the Fans shindig in Minehead. As a whole album this is certainly full of ambition and has some great moments, but occasionally does veer into the dreaded "nice background music" zone. Not enough to spoil the overall listen, but certainly enough to file this under "very good but not quite excellent". Nice band-name though... verbs!
Do Make Say Think (labelmates of the aforementioned G!YBE) manage to keep a fairly happy medium between the noodlings and having memorable songs. The dynamic range on this album is huge; it can veer from acoustic arpeggios to amps-to-eleven rock without disarming the listener. The rockage is excellent, too, with the standout being "The Universe!", which has a great riff and storms along without much let-up. Also good is the epic "Executioner Blues", an almost symphonic number which goes bat-shit crazy at around the seven-minute mark.
Equally epic is "A With Living", which combines elements of Tortoise and Broken Social Scene (limited frame of reference here, people. I'm sure someone else could have compared it Polish neo-classical jazz or something) and features real actual singing and some lovely mournful horns towards the end.
I'm sure, as with many bands of this style, the live arena is the best place to experience them and I am looking forward to seeing them at the upcoming ATP vs the Fans shindig in Minehead. As a whole album this is certainly full of ambition and has some great moments, but occasionally does veer into the dreaded "nice background music" zone. Not enough to spoil the overall listen, but certainly enough to file this under "very good but not quite excellent". Nice band-name though... verbs!
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