I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind

We’ve all thought this at some point, I’m sure:

After being ’discovered’ by The Rolling Stones’ guru, Andrew Loog Oldham, and touted as ‘the new Marianne Faithful’ or the ‘female Bob Dylan’ in the 60s, Vashti Bunyan retreated from public view.  Yet her album Just Another Diamond Day accrued a cult popularity as a sort of lost English folk classic, such were its mystical violins and wacky sentiments.  The album was re-released in the 90s, and Vashti became an icon to the likes of  The Cocteau Twins’ and Devendra Banhart.  She’s announced a short tour in the Spring, including a Sunday 11 April gig at Union Chapel, and is also playing January’s ‘Way To Blue’ series of concerts, celebrating Nick Drake’s legacy (Friday 22 January at the Barbican).  You’ll be captivated.

Thanks to Sixty at Fat Cat for alerting me to this.

Lissie’s coming to London

Lissie Maurus’ star is on the rise in the US, and she can expect to bolster her UK fanbase too after a couple of London gigs in early February.  Simply known as Lissie, she has a haunting sound: sometimes a rocked-up country/folk and sometimes a very graceful girl-and-guitar set-up, all complete with quirky vocal tics and moments of haunting candour.  With her waterfall-pure voice, Lissie’s all set for success.

The gigs in question are a Jazz Cafe show (now sold out) as part of the Next Big Thing festival, and a BBC Introducing gig at The Social on Tuesday 9 February, about which the internet or The Social’s website can currently provide no details whatsoever. 

MySpace | Buy | MP3: Lissie – Wedding Bells

Hope & Future Festival

Hosted by the returning Good Shoes, the Hope & Future Festival promises top-quality new acts and East London alternativa in one delicious four-day swoop.  Held from Wednesday 20 - Saturday 23 January in Dalston/De Beauvoir’s Stag’s Head, a pub and regular gig venue, the mini-fest will offer gigs each evening for the adults, plus Wednesday, Thursday and Friday matinee shows at 4.30pm for those aged 14 and above.  How very civilized, eh?

The line-up looks excellent and admirably London-focused.  Along with Good Shoes, there’s the energetic electro brouhaha of Is Tropical, Othello Woolf’s louche folk/soul melancholy, Wild Palms’ “noise wave” as Dazed calls it (more on them here soon) and the fierce drum-led rock of New Cross act Hatcham Social.  The rest of the bands (Fiction, Disappearers, Gold Sounds and La Shark) I haven’t heard of, but I’d wager there’s at least one gem among them.  Maximo Park and Blood Red Shoes are among the DJs in the evening shows.  Pretty strong, huh?

Tickets are priced at £5 for the evening shows and £3 for the matinees on the door, with a few available in advance here.

MP3: Othello Woolf – Stand
MP3: Is Tropical – I’ll Take My Chances (demo)

Good Shoes’ second album finally arrives

Remember 2007?  Nope, me either.  But one thing I do recall is Good Shoes: their album, Think Before You Speak, was rightly hailed as one of the year’s best.  On the surface a fairly generic, choppy-and-chirpy indie pop, repeat listens revealed unseen subtleties – nice off-chords, and poetic, honest evocations of South London life.  The Morden band had none of the swagger or arrogance of many bands of the day, nor the soppy earnestness that swamps today’s indie crop.

Why this trip down Memory Lane?  For, good reason: Good Shoes are finally releasing a second album, No Hope, No Future, on 25 January.  Judging from that and free release The Way My Heart Beats, you’re looking at a pared-down, starker sound, but still with those same subtleties.  The first single, Under Control, is out now (free on Good Shoes’ website) and on video above.  To support the record, Good Shoes are playing (and indeed hosting) the Hope & Future Festival at The Stag’s Head in Dalston (more about that here soon)

MySpace | Website | Buy | MP3: Good Shoes – The Way My Heart Beats

Erland & The Carnival

Erland & The Carnival are excellent for a few reasons.  Not only do they like goats in suits (check out the cover art below) and have, in Erland Cooper, a lead singer from the Orkney Islands, but they make messed-up versions of old folk songs, from Victorian to Leonard Cohen.  

I especially like Trouble in Mind.  It’s full of fuzzy, distorted feedback and flinty guitars.  It has the kind of incessant beat that makes you tap the nearest thing with your hand – thigh, escalator, desk.  It has a myriad structure.  And it has a section of la-la-la-ing, which automatically makes any song good (according to Some Of It Was True!’s rules of music, #24).

Was You Ever See – an old Victorian tune about railways - is equally great, and not just because I admire it’s atrocious grammar.   There’s something that sounds like an organ anchoring things with a jaunty hook, and real pleasure to be had in hearing Erland’s broad voice sing cutesy folky lyrics about John, Jane and Betsy eating bugs, dancing jigs and drinking Pepsi.  My Name is Carnival, meanwhile, is a burly Jackson C. Frank cover with a hint of Nick Cave or Clint Boon via its gothic chorus.

If you fancy seeing Erland and his five helpers (notably including ex-The Verve & Blur guitarist Simon Tong and ex-The Orb drummer David Nock), then good news - there are a few opportunities coming up.  First off, they play the Luminaire on Mon 18 January (details).  Then it’s the Old Blue Last on Thurs 18 February and finally a slot supporting the magnificent Tunng at the Relentless Garage (Thurs 25 March, tickets).  See you there – I’ll be the one la-la-la-ing along and sipping Pepsi.

MySpace | Website | Buy | MP3: Erland & The Carnival – My Name Is Carnival

Two Door Cinema Club in London this Tuesday

Two Door Cinema Club have been variously tipped by the BBC and other big names, and there’s a chance for Londoners to decide for themselves on Tuesday, when the Northern Irish trio play Madame JoJo’s White Heat night (tickets here) – before a later gig for HMV’s Next Big Thing.  Personally I don’t find TDCC that remarkable: their chirpy indie pop is fast, fresh and perfectly palatable, but without any great invention or groundbreaking style to my ear - the sort of stuff which multiple listens soon exposes.   But perhaps you’ll disagree?

MySpace | Buy | MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work Out

Holly Miranda and Stornoway among acts at Xfm Xposure night

Xfm’s Xposure show has curated an excellent-sounding night on Saturday 30 January at the Barfly (tickets at £17 | info).  As the name suggests, Xposure is focused on splashing new acts, and they have a bumper crop for this live show.  We Have Band headline, but check out the undercard: it includes the crazy acid-punk-techno sounds of Dalston’s Django Django,  the glad-rock beats of Goldhawks and the sincere folkisms of King Charles (more on him soon) among them.  But it’s two other up-and-comers who really get this blogger excited…

HOLLY MIRANDA
Called a “little Feist” by Kanye West, signed to XL, touring with The xx… Holly Miranda’s new solo career (her band, Brooklyn rockers The Jealous Girlfriends, are taking an indefinite hiatus) has certainly gained attention.  When you listen to her stuff, you hear why.  Apparently Holly uses two mikes on stage to fracture her vocals; and there’s a similar duality to her songs, as well as digi-enhancement.  Slowburns like Wavves showcase Holly’s soothing, smoky voice, and befit Sunday mornings with nothing to do.  Livelier, with bouncy xylophones and brass boosts, is Forest Green, Oh Forest Green, the first single.  Such variety is perhaps due to TV On The Radio’s Sitek, producer of album The Magician’s Private Library, out 23 February.

MySpace | Website | Buy | MP3: Holly Miranda – Forest Green, Oh Forest Green

STORNOWAY
To use a horse-racing term (it’s Sunday after all), Oxford-based Stornoway have great form.  The BBC picked them for its Sound of 2010 longlist.  The Daily Telegraph asked them to write a series of articles based on their Glastonbury experience in 2009.  They played a secret free concert at the Tate Modern in September (they’ve got eco-credentials, y’see).  And (here we go again), they’re worth a punt: offering a graceful indie, one lent its ephemeral quality by backing strings, solemn choruses and Brian Briggs’ stark, floaty voice. You’re (one more time) odds on to fall in love with them.

MySpace | Buy | MP3: Stornoway – Zorbing (removed at band’s request)

Pure Groove Music Night coming soon

More exciting news from the wondrous folk at Pure Groove has just reached my island in the snow.  On Wednesday 20 January (definitely January) they’re holding the Pure Groove Music Night.  Thrillingly titled it may not be, but pulsating it may well be: in PG’s own words the evening sees Pure Groove record label bring ”some of their illustrious roster to play what could be the biggest line-up of the year. No names can be announced but expect superstars!”

Superstars might be pushing it, but as Ex-Lovers, GoldieLocks, Metronomy (Empire of the Sun cover available below) and Ipso Facto are among said roster, we’re talking some great acts.  Combine that with the usual free-entry and you’re looking at quite an upgrade on the usual in-store sessions Pure Groove holds.  If you’re free and around, definitely get yourself along.

MP3: Metronomy – We Are The People

(Correction) Oh My Love – John & Jehn at the Lexington

Turns out I haven’t yet worked out the English month system: this one’s actually in February, not January.  On Wednesday 10 February to be precise.  Sorry to anyone I inconvenienced – Richard.

I’ve just found out that the fearsomely fabulous John & Jehn, a moody, melodramatic and mighty strange couple whom I wittered on about recently, are playing The Lexington next Wednesday.  Doors are at 7.30 but I doubt (and hope, as I have Italian class!) that the two Js will take the stage before 9.30.  Tickets here.  Time to use the same great picture again…

New London Music – Wolf People

London quartet Wolf People have recently been signed by Jagjaguwar, the very-cool Indiana record label’s first-ever UK band.  Seemingly like every music act these days, they harken back to a yesteryear style.  In the case of Wolf People, that’s the most retro rock sound imaginable - think howlin’ and growlin’ chords, harmonicas, grandiose lyrics, hearty, slightly bluesy vocals and a slightly psychedelic mentality.  There are some great twists, too: a perky flute on Tiny Circles; a tootling middle section on Mercy II; and some Andean panpipe-style magic in the gloriously truncated Cotton Strands.

At times they also remind of early Libertines stuff: grubby, chaotic and proggy, not least on October Fires, available below.  On occasion there are blues structures or folky moments, like a less exotic Tinariwen (who Wolf People have supported of late, along with Dinosaur Jr).  But on the whole there’s something much more vintage and elegant here, music fuelled by unbridled love for a past scene.

That said, all the songs released so far aren’t even the real deal.  According to Jagjaguwar, their debut LP, Tidings, out on 23 Febraury is not even a proper album, per se.  In fact it’s a collection of recordings made by lead-man Jack Sharp between 2005 and 2007, and mostly before the band as it exists now was formed.  Later products may well be less rich in tape hiss and scratchy recording sound - which is something of a shame if you ask me, as that lo-fi quality neatly suits their traditional yearnings.  Let’s hope not.

Real album or not, Wolf People are still launching Tidings, and twice over at that.  They play The Lexington on Tuesday 16 February, and then Brixton’s The Windmill a week later on Tuesday 23 February.  Something tells me they’ll be a real blast live.

MySpace (Buy records via links there)
MP3: Wolf People – October Fires