unpopular

Went to London on Friday night for the Fortuna Pop night at the Buffalo bar. I got to play some records as well as see some ace bands, including the always excellent Airport Girl and the fabulously shambolic and loveable Esiotrot. We released their 3” CD on I Wish I Was Unpopular as well, which is of course ace. I haven’t stopped playing it for days. I am addicted to the sounds of ‘Emily Scott’ in particular. “She’s the daughter of the clergyman, she’ll wash my hair when it gets dirty, man” has to be my favourite line of the year so far. Marvellous. Photos are here, and a review will be forthcoming soon. Ish.

Anyway, it was a fleeting visit, but I found time to wander around Paddington again and take photos. And those ones are here.

I caught the 12.05 train home, which took a paltry two hours from station to station. Two hours to London? Man, why don’t I do it more often? Oh yeah, money. Whatever.

Then on Saturday night a load of us went out for dinner in Exeter, to the Italian restaurant in what used to be the Turk’s Head on the High Street. I had not been on Exeter High Street on a Saturday night for years. It was quite scary. We joked about going on to Timepiece afterwards, and then on Sunday morning I got an email from Tim pointing me at this. Spooky.

Sunday I rode my bike for the first time since New Year’s Day. I rode up the valley for an hour, reached Cove, turned around and rode back again. Then today I rode to work and back. It’s pretty much wiped me out, but it is good to be back in the saddle again after various illnesses. Fingers crossed I can keep myself motivated to do a few more school runs this week…

A Classic Education

Maybe I’ve just been looking in the wrong places (or more likely not looking at all) but Italy has never seemed to me to be a hot-bed of great music, ‘indie’ or otherwise. All the more surprising then to discover this group called A Classic Education and their ‘Stay Son’ track. It’s really rather ravishing, perhaps helped out by a singer who is apparently from Ottawa lending the accomplished backing a shiveringly brittle edge. It reminds me of the kind of melodic orchestrated Indie Rock that someone like Deloris or Augie March have made in the past.

Now I know nothing about the group other than what I’ve said above, and I of course reserve the right to withdraw all support should they turn out to be bearded long-hairs with unwieldy collections of Prog Rock records under their arms. But for today, with this one song, they are really rather gorgeous.

Ears Like Golden Bats

I had an email from Jorge at Becalmed Records today, in which he promises me a copy of the new album from My Teenage Stride. What is it with those Brooklyn bands recently? First The Pathways return and now My Teenage Stride. I can’t tell you how excited this all makes me.

Jorge also alerted me to this, which I read with interest. It made me blush. It also introduced me to Mog which was rather nice. I’m not sure if it will replace Last FM in my heart, but it’s early days. Have to say I am not impressed by the advert in the corner of the Mog page for the dreary, dreaded Zune, but meh…

The Pathways are back!

Yay! The Pathways, who gave us the wonderful Boat of Confidence album, are finally back after what seems like an interminable age away. If you are in New York on Thursday, you must welcome them back with a ticker tape parade. And a new album to look forward to! Double Yay! Here are the details, dudes:

After many painful months of physical therapy, the Pathways are back on that horse.  Please join us this Thursday, January 25th, at the Cake Shop for our first show in, like, forever.  We will be playing new songs, wearing new clothes, employing a new drummer (you may know him as Stefan Marolachakis) and selling  advance copies of our new album "Gray Blaze" for the  low, low price of $5.

Details:

The Pathways
@ Cake Shop (152 Ludlow St.)
w/ The Shot Heard Round the World and Golden Ball
Thursday, Jan. 25th
$6    8 pm  [we're on first -- don't be late!]

top, top twenty...

I forgot to blog the fact that last Wednesday, the 17th January, was my two year anniversary on Last FM. In that time I have played just over 38,000 tracks which averages out at around 54 tracks a day. The Pipettes are still my number one most played artist, and that’s not counting the error that left a single song of theirs playing on repeat off the school server overnight. It’s even more impressive (or worrying, depending on your point of view) when you realise that most of the 452 plays that place them at number came from maybe ten or fifteen songs at most: the ‘seven songs’ demo CD and a few live and session cuts. The Beach Boys, in comparison, are at number two on 430 plays from a whopping 334 songs, which mostly, I have to say, comes from those times when I cannot decide what to play and so leave iTunes on random, plucking out tracks from the 31,242 in its library.

Anyway, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love Last FM. It’s the only ‘social networking’ site that I’ve continued to be engaged by, aside from Flickr, probably because the networking side of it comes as a secondary bonus to the main attraction. I’m sure there is a message/lesson in there somewhere. I’m blowed if I can think of what it might be though.

Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out Ot Sea)

I just found out that Denny Doherty of The Mamas and The Papas died a couple of days ago, age 66. And yeah, so it's a sad reason to do so, but let's all dig out those Mamas and Papas classics and indulge ourselves one more time. What better way to chase away the January Blues, after all. Whilst we are at it, we should also give a spin or two to Denny's classy 1974 solo set 'Waiting For A Song' (reissued last year on El); one of the singer-songwriter sets that Tim Footman is hopefully aware of as sublime proof that early '70s US Rock was not entirely bereft of fine substance.

Heaven Sent

In episode two of his ‘Shivers Inside’ series for Tangents, the incomparable John Carney said “it’s interesting that no one seems to have scanned a copy of this fanzine and made it available for all to see”. Well, thanks to the good grace of one fine and upstanding Tangents reader, I’m delighted to be able to tell you all that John need fret no more. For lo, the Postcard fanzine artefact in question is now available to all and sundry as a PDF here.  Enjoy. And am I being horribly perverse by mentioning this here and yet not actually referring to it on the article itself? Probably. It’s just that I like the idea that people might have to dig around a little more to discover it, for sometimes I think that the Internet makes the act of discovery just a little too easy. There is value in the act of searching, of following the trails, after all.

the technophobes dream date

Still not sure what to do with your Friday night next week? Then may I humbly suggest you leg it along to the Buffalo Bar in London town, where the fabulous Esiotrot will be playing a show. The equally fine Airport Girl will be headlining, whilst My Sad Captains and The Fischers round out the band line-up. As if that wasn’t enough to tempt you out, someone from Tangents and Unpopular Records will be spinning some discs in between sets. It will be a 7” only set, and I have my neat 7” flight case all prepped with way too many records to fill the available time. It’s always the way. If anyone wants a £3 guest list place, let me know and I’ll see what I can do for you.

Oh yeah, and the Buffalo Bar is literally right outside the entrance to Highbury and Islington tube station, so not even I can miss it. More details from the Fortuna Pop website.

Anyone Who Rides A Bike Is A Friend Of Mine

Two lovely discs turned up the mail today. The first is from Bristol based Santa Dog, who sent a copy of their new ‘Belle De Jour’ EP. With a classy letter-press sleeve and a printed luggage tag note (that reminds me of the Pale Fountains concert tag that Kevin gave me to scan), it proclaims itself to be something akin to Blondie facing it off with Throwing Muses on an English cliff-top. That such a description should be not too far off the truth says a lot. There is a splendidly abandoned yearning to the sound of Santa Dog that mixes the effortlessly effervescent with the romantic melancholic patina of floral dresses on shingle beaches. It all rather takes me back to the post-Riot Grrl Britpop surges of the likes of Sleeper (come on, admit it, you KNOW those early Sleeper singles were sherbet-sweet Pop nuggets) and Sidi Bou Said. Or, to throw on contemporary references, file next to The Long Blondes and Lucky Soul. Yummy either way.

The other disc came from Gothenburg and also has a lovely sleeve. Now I came across Bye Bye Bicycle via the peerless Swedes Please website last year, and had been after a hard copy of the wonderfully titled ‘Anyone Who Rides A Bike Is A Friend Of Mine’ EP for ages. Thanks then to Andre from the group for coming through with a copy in my hour of need. Marvellous quirky soaraway indiepop with a kinda Dylan thing going on with the vocals. Stick them next to Action Painting! and My Darling You on your next mix-tape. You know you want to.

Hearing Sound Having Fun

Pop! At last! A post about Pop Music! I can almost feel the relief flowing over the Interweb. Or not. Well whatever, before I bounded off to London I managed to finally record my Laugh vinyl onto disk, hence the reason they are tip top of my weekly Last FM chart. Now I’ve had a fair few people asking about how they could hear some Laugh material, and with the continuing paucity of digital content (i.e. no bugger has seen sense and reissued their fabulous catalogue) I thought I would share what I have with you fine people. Here is the Sensation Number One album, whilst here are some singles tracks. I spoil you, I really do.