She told me she was on her way to York for the day; she told me about the free buses in Leeds where I said I’d been at university many moons ago; she confessed she rode the trains a lot using her husband’s old pass, after he died 15 years ago.  “He worked on the tracks” she said, with fond, nostalgic pride.  I sensed he had been a good guy, and was much missed.

Eventually York station trundled into view.  This lady, whose name I never got, stood up.  “I’m standing up now,” she said.  I nodded, and gulped a little, unexpectedly choked.  “It was nice to meet you,” I mustered.  It really had been; a brief rise from my otherwise ugly reverie.  “Nice to meet you too,” she said, matter-of-factly, before striding off into her life, and out of mine.  I sat there, damp-eyed and suddenly, starkly aware of the fragility of things.  Then the train pulled out, and I gradually forgot, returning to my slumber.

That encounter stays with me, though, and informs my coming trip to Italy, which ought to have much bearing on the rest of my life.  It also shows me how things can grow, and how my own first impressions and gut reactions aren’t always great.  This beautiful, rousing song does a little of that, too…

Back in a week…

Continuing this unexpected spree of newsbites, here’s notice of a return for London festival  Yes Way.  For those who don’t know, this is a weekender (13-15 August) held entirely in a former Peckham car show-room.  That’s now owned by project space Auto-Italia, and it’s they, together with promoter/label Upset The Rhythm who are throwing this celebration of ”the best and brightest of the UK’s art and music underground”.

Some 41 acts will perform across two stages, alongside the work of visual artists.  Musicians lined up this year include Male Bonding, Lovvers, Fair-Ohs, Veronica Falls and Gentle Friendly.  There’ll also be a temporary DIY supermarket, a live TV lab opening the festival up to viewers on the internet, a selection of vegetarian and vegan food and a not-for-profit bar.  It’s £18 for the weekend, or £5/£8 for a day ticket – book them here.

Here’s a clip from Fool’s Gold’s previous Madame JoJo’s show that I found on YouTube; it shows the final song, with half the band dancing in the crowd.  Magical, heady and joyful stuff.

Finally, a reminder that Fool’s Gold don’t just do great songs – they also do great remixes.  Check out this imaginative, if concise, reworking of Local Natives’ Wide Eyes…

MP3: Local Natives – Eyes Wide (Fool’s Gold Remix)

The pioneering Young & Lost Club night has announced a suitably high-quality party to celebrate its 5th Anniversary.  Playing live with be Noah & The Whale and Ex-Lovers, while Good Shoes, Sunderbans and Young & Lost Club themselves will be amongst the disk-spinners.  It’s all taking place at Village Underground on 1 September – advance tix are £11 here.

Anyway, here’s the first Monday Music for a month or so – five songs that I’m currently seduced by, without the otherwise obligatory London focus:

Violens – Acid Reign
Sounding more UK 80s pop with each deadpan verse, Jorge Elbrecht and his Violens gang (long hailed as MGMT’s heirs) are cranking their electro stylings up a notch, a la Yeasayer.  This one mixes the aforementioned retro tone with some serious dance hooks in the chorus, making for what wanky City boys would call “a proper banger”.  And they’d be right.

Florence & The Machine – Cosmic Love (Short Club Mix)
For once the joy isn’t so much Flo and her fly voice, but the saintly sweetness of her latest’s remix.  Full of frothy keyboard quirks soft as jacuzzi pumps and blessed with a generally spaced-out, unhurried vibe, it’s a song that smacks of long summer dog days and those last delightful dregs of lost, lush weekends.  Blissful it be.

Tobacco – Six Royal Vipers
On Saturday I went to a wedding and it was great: a happy couple, top-notch speeches, illicit joints, all the good stuff.  Trouble was, it was in Edinburgh, and that meant a five-hour, spaced-out train journey back south.  Fields, seas, trees and towns whistled by; my vision blurred and mind floated, lost in zonky memories.  Tobacco’s pop, fierce and soft like a kind of musical acupuncture, was the perfect tranquiliser.

Bambara – Stay Gray
This one’s wild and guttural, as if it’s the uncensored sound of a broken heart, or pure emotional alcohol let wild in a studio.  Gradually and woozily it climbs, as if Bambara’s singer is stuck in a square room and getting increasingly frustrated, increasingly panic-stricken and pugnacious. Eventually he resorts to full-pitched, throaty bellows, seemingly at the edge of reason.

School Of Seven Bells – Windstorm
Everyone from the Sunday Times to SOIWT is jerking themselves empty over NYC’s School of Seven Bells, excitingly containing two identical – and identically hot – female twins. Windstorm sees them singing over each other, with a backing track adding glossy euphoria and minimalist guitar hooks lending a arty feel.

MP3s via the song titles

New London band Backseat Heartbeats‘ brooding rock-punk sound is like heroin for the analytical diary-writer in me.  Greedily going through the MySpace menu,  I find Death Pleasures fast and murmurous, like a subway ride in an oxygen chamber, Love Stains inexplicably reminiscent of The Kills even though it sounds nothing like them, and 23 so mistily melancholic and journey-like that it makes me think of racing up a motorway, the sun setting and the destination irrelevant. 

Catch them at Proud Camden on Tuesday 27 July alongside the also-marvellous Creatures of Love.

MySpace

I ♥ East London is a newish (ie it’s two months old, but I only just found out about it) night in CAMP’s basement promoting the best music from Hackney, Hainault, Homerton and the rest.  It takes place on the first Thursday of every month and tickets are £8 on the door but only a trivial £3 in advance.  Expect lo-fi from Leyton, Dalston dubstep, skiffly scratchings straight outta Stratford, maybe a Betty Green banjo ballad or two and, if you’re really, really lucky, some Maxsta…

How I’m enjoying East London band Tigercats, newly signed to Haircut.   They’ve got a pleasingly naive-sounding singer, guitars that crash along like the latter stages of a Circle Line pub crawl and indie-pop melodies which oddly remind me of 1995 and weird jog-on-the-spot dances performed in my bedroom.  The below is my favourite track: while unsure if it’s deliberately misnamed after the ex-Blue Peter presenter, I’m definitely smitten with the summery grunt on offer, and the mention of beloved Hackney Downs.

MySpace | Buy
MP3: Tigercats – Konny Huck

King Antics are a bit like England’s football team – they’re not the finished article, but there’s sure some individual talent lurking.  (I said a ‘bit’ like.)  The demos currently available on MySpace kick and splutter into fully-bellowed belters, supported by intense guitars with real grunt, some prickly keyboard noises and Jago’s sardonic baritone.  None is an instant slice of musical majesty, but there’s still plenty enough vitamins on display to suggest imminent glory for this unsigned London trio.

MySpace
MP3: King Antics – Liars (demo)