There's times, like a dismally grey day in February; or the comedown after a weeks festival, or just the impenatrable fog of ennui derived from another working day, when you don't feel like doing anything. Just cannot be bothered. It's moments like those when I find music is at it's best, I think everyone has experienced the mood changing power of music, and at this moment in time there's nothing I want more than a little pop pick me up. Luckily for me then that there's three great pop songs (and videos) knocking about at the moment. Not a lot more to be said then just let these little nuggets of brilliance brighten your day.
Allo Darlin' - Capricornia
Eux Autres - Home Tonight
MJ Hibbett - A Little Bit
Also there's a little bit (ahem) on the making of the video on Hibbett's website which you should read.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Friday, 24 February 2012
Start All Over
Like a bedraggled phoenix struggling from the flames; like a snowdrop waiting to be crushed by a jackboot, Beerandbands rises again ready to hobble into action. To misquote a dour Mancunian "7 months is a long time", and that is truly the case; new bands and music rise and fall, ebb and flow, and vanish before anyone even noticed, and whilst I may have missed out on reporting on stuff over the last however long, it's pleasing to note that there's still a lot going on.
In fact it's a flurry of activity out there at the minute; exciting enough to move me to (relative) action.
Firstly, London Popfest. It was on last night and it's on over the weekend; allday on Saturday and from 1:00pm on Sunday. I believe Saturday is sold out but there's tickets for Friday and Sunday, both of which boast fantastic line-ups. If sadly you can't make it (much like me) then there's at least the brilliant consolation of a free download compilation of this years line-up. Which is more than worth the 5 - 10 minutes of your time it will take to download it.
Details of popfest - tickets, times, etc can be found on their website.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
If London Popfest isn't enough to get you excited then surely the prospect of Indietracks must do. For some waiting for the first announcements of indietracks is a traditional. Bands waiting to be see if they can play, fans with fingerscrossed that their favourite will get a chance. The fact that a band who played the previous year won't usually play the next year, adds a nice spice to the mix. So yes, anyway, Indietracks have already announced there first few acts, and it looks as promising as ever. Go on HAVE A LOOK. It's a nice mix of the big hitter (Allo Darlin', Tender Trap), the new flavours (Colour Me Wednesday, Evans The Death, GoldBears) and the mysterious (Doggy.) I must admit I'm mostly excited about Language Of Flowers, I saw them once supporting Camera Obscura in, oh 2006 I think, and they were wonderful. I had no idea they were going to reform to do this. There are early bird tickets on the indietracks website I linked up there; and it's worth noting that the festival takes place earlier this year, just in case you're on auto pilot and have booked the wrong days off work! Finally the last couple of pages of the indietracks announcements page on anorakforum.com has some videos of the announced bands so far.
One last indiepop festival to mention before I go, and it's a new one. On the 24th Of March there's going to be an indiepop alldayer in Leicester. I like the fact that there are more and more of these 'popfests' popping up all over the country it can only be a very, very good thing. This one has the always entertaining M.J Hibbett and Tender Trap for starters, but the line up is very good indeed.
There's a facebook events page for this one.
In fact it's a flurry of activity out there at the minute; exciting enough to move me to (relative) action.
Firstly, London Popfest. It was on last night and it's on over the weekend; allday on Saturday and from 1:00pm on Sunday. I believe Saturday is sold out but there's tickets for Friday and Sunday, both of which boast fantastic line-ups. If sadly you can't make it (much like me) then there's at least the brilliant consolation of a free download compilation of this years line-up. Which is more than worth the 5 - 10 minutes of your time it will take to download it.
Details of popfest - tickets, times, etc can be found on their website.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
If London Popfest isn't enough to get you excited then surely the prospect of Indietracks must do. For some waiting for the first announcements of indietracks is a traditional. Bands waiting to be see if they can play, fans with fingerscrossed that their favourite will get a chance. The fact that a band who played the previous year won't usually play the next year, adds a nice spice to the mix. So yes, anyway, Indietracks have already announced there first few acts, and it looks as promising as ever. Go on HAVE A LOOK. It's a nice mix of the big hitter (Allo Darlin', Tender Trap), the new flavours (Colour Me Wednesday, Evans The Death, GoldBears) and the mysterious (Doggy.) I must admit I'm mostly excited about Language Of Flowers, I saw them once supporting Camera Obscura in, oh 2006 I think, and they were wonderful. I had no idea they were going to reform to do this. There are early bird tickets on the indietracks website I linked up there; and it's worth noting that the festival takes place earlier this year, just in case you're on auto pilot and have booked the wrong days off work! Finally the last couple of pages of the indietracks announcements page on anorakforum.com has some videos of the announced bands so far.
One last indiepop festival to mention before I go, and it's a new one. On the 24th Of March there's going to be an indiepop alldayer in Leicester. I like the fact that there are more and more of these 'popfests' popping up all over the country it can only be a very, very good thing. This one has the always entertaining M.J Hibbett and Tender Trap for starters, but the line up is very good indeed.
There's a facebook events page for this one.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Promise fulfilled
There's something about the band Pocketbooks that always makes me think of summer, it's probably the bright sound that lingers in the music, a lyrical hint of it here and there or maybe there's an association there with Indietracks, it could be a whole host of other things too.
What I do know is that it makes me very happy that Pocketbooks have a new free to download single called 'Promises, Promises', a single which is definitely in keeping with the summer ideal.
It's properly excellent. Building on the sound they had on their album Flight Paths, it sounds more mature. Not in a serious boring sense, but in a way that sees them building on the potential they've always had and creating something even better with it. Typically bittersweet lyrically, there's lovely melodies on it, some great violin and best of all a fab tune. It's great to have something new from them, and it's even better that it's as good as this is. The artwork is ace too. If this is anything to go by the new album is going to be something quite, quite special.
You can download the track for FREE (and you'd be daft not to) -
http://www.box.net/shared/e7uipl4kt9l5yu3jkhvs
While your at it you can early order the album from the always excellent Odd Box records right now too. Go on!
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Apple Eyes
Blimey it's been awhile again, hasn't it? I've been (in between bouts of doing nothing) playing gigs with the band I'm in and job hunting, oh and looking forward to the festival at the end of this month of course, speaking of which...
Me and my girlfriend were going through the list of bands playing Indietracks the other day to try and find out which ones we'd not heard before that we'd like to watch; she's not a massive indiepop fan so it's a little difficult. That said we were both interested in the description of Apples Eyes, and had a quick listen to some of their stuff and enjoyed it. Highly fortuitous then that a few days ago, said band got in touch with me to see if I wanted to tell you readers about them; and do you know what? I do.
The band began as the brainchild of Claire Hadidjenar and producer Matthew Walker, who together started putting together a whole bunch of instruments with a dash of electronics before topping it off with some vocal harmonies. They soon had interest from various places including BBC6 music's Tom Robinson (great taste that man has). It's not suprising he paid attention, they share music tastes as diverse as Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Cornelius, Bat for Lashes, Deerhoof and Elliott Smith.
The 2 have now gathered together a live band and are setting out on a tour in support of debut single 'Wild Beasts', which just happens to be released digitally this week, on the 14th to be precise. It's an excellent piece of music too. At it's most basic it's a bang on pop song, with a ace chorus. But there's much more to it then that, musically inventive, it doesn't keep still. It's bubbling with ideas, but they all combine to make a song that is as good as the sum of it's parts and then some? It's it electronic, yes but then it's folky too, and then there's that chorus. Whatever it's ace. You can have a listen to if you like :-
Wild Beasts by Apple Eyes
The other side of the release 'Lost Between The Lines' is just as good, which is a highly impressive feat.
As I say the single is out on the 14th as a download only release, so you'll be able to get that via Itunes and such outlets. You can check out stuff on Myspace too. They'll also be playing some gigs too:-
14th July with Pocketbooks and Wolventrix at The Wilmington Arms, London
16th July with Allo, Darlin' amongst others at The Haymakers in Cambridge.
31st July - INDIETRACKS - Indoor stage 13:45. See you there!
They'll also playing with some bands at Indietracks too in various capacities, but you'll have to find those out for yourself...
Me and my girlfriend were going through the list of bands playing Indietracks the other day to try and find out which ones we'd not heard before that we'd like to watch; she's not a massive indiepop fan so it's a little difficult. That said we were both interested in the description of Apples Eyes, and had a quick listen to some of their stuff and enjoyed it. Highly fortuitous then that a few days ago, said band got in touch with me to see if I wanted to tell you readers about them; and do you know what? I do.
The band began as the brainchild of Claire Hadidjenar and producer Matthew Walker, who together started putting together a whole bunch of instruments with a dash of electronics before topping it off with some vocal harmonies. They soon had interest from various places including BBC6 music's Tom Robinson (great taste that man has). It's not suprising he paid attention, they share music tastes as diverse as Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Cornelius, Bat for Lashes, Deerhoof and Elliott Smith.
The 2 have now gathered together a live band and are setting out on a tour in support of debut single 'Wild Beasts', which just happens to be released digitally this week, on the 14th to be precise. It's an excellent piece of music too. At it's most basic it's a bang on pop song, with a ace chorus. But there's much more to it then that, musically inventive, it doesn't keep still. It's bubbling with ideas, but they all combine to make a song that is as good as the sum of it's parts and then some? It's it electronic, yes but then it's folky too, and then there's that chorus. Whatever it's ace. You can have a listen to if you like :-
Wild Beasts by Apple Eyes
The other side of the release 'Lost Between The Lines' is just as good, which is a highly impressive feat.
As I say the single is out on the 14th as a download only release, so you'll be able to get that via Itunes and such outlets. You can check out stuff on Myspace too. They'll also be playing some gigs too:-
14th July with Pocketbooks and Wolventrix at The Wilmington Arms, London
16th July with Allo, Darlin' amongst others at The Haymakers in Cambridge.
31st July - INDIETRACKS - Indoor stage 13:45. See you there!
They'll also playing with some bands at Indietracks too in various capacities, but you'll have to find those out for yourself...
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Indietracks Compilation 2011
I tend to mention Indietracks quite a lot on this blog, but that's because it's a truly terrific thing; a festival that does it's own thing, promotes lesser known bands, supports the midland railway charity and puts smiles on peoples faces. Whats not to love?
If I wrote a book blog I'd spend most of it yelling about the 'Great Gatsby' or if I wrote a film blog it'd be full of my enjoyment of the works of Brian De Palma.
Anyway to get back to to that opening paragraph it's the line about supporting the Midland railway that's pertinent to this blog post as you'll find out shortly; you see every year Indietracks puts off a compilation of the band's that are going to be playing; a taster, a veritable smorgasbord of indiepop if you will. This year is no different in that respect. The album is download only, and it's a pay what you want affair with all proceeds going to the Midland Railway charity; which means of course that you can just give what you can afford, whilst helping the site which puts on the festival in the process. It's brilliant.
The compilation itself, as you might expect, is excellent. It's clearly been put together with a lot of love, it's sequenced really well. Like the best mixtape, the one that got worn out from being played so much. The kind of thing that's so good you expect to hear it from every bedroom window and every passing car, and can't believe that other people aren't aware of it. There's so much good stuff here (40 tracks worth), lots of it new to me, that it would be a futile excercise to try and write about every track but from the perfect indiepop of The Procters through the jangle of The Whatevers and giddy joy of Papa Topo it's all ace.
It's being released by Make Do And Mend Records and you can find, listen and download it from Bandcamp
If I wrote a book blog I'd spend most of it yelling about the 'Great Gatsby' or if I wrote a film blog it'd be full of my enjoyment of the works of Brian De Palma.
Anyway to get back to to that opening paragraph it's the line about supporting the Midland railway that's pertinent to this blog post as you'll find out shortly; you see every year Indietracks puts off a compilation of the band's that are going to be playing; a taster, a veritable smorgasbord of indiepop if you will. This year is no different in that respect. The album is download only, and it's a pay what you want affair with all proceeds going to the Midland Railway charity; which means of course that you can just give what you can afford, whilst helping the site which puts on the festival in the process. It's brilliant.
The compilation itself, as you might expect, is excellent. It's clearly been put together with a lot of love, it's sequenced really well. Like the best mixtape, the one that got worn out from being played so much. The kind of thing that's so good you expect to hear it from every bedroom window and every passing car, and can't believe that other people aren't aware of it. There's so much good stuff here (40 tracks worth), lots of it new to me, that it would be a futile excercise to try and write about every track but from the perfect indiepop of The Procters through the jangle of The Whatevers and giddy joy of Papa Topo it's all ace.
It's being released by Make Do And Mend Records and you can find, listen and download it from Bandcamp
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Cults - Cults
You may have heard of Cults, they're Ep which was on Bandcamp generated a fair bit of buzz; especially the song 'Go Outside' which was praised pretty damn highly. If you have heard the band then, you probably know what to expect from their debut album. If you haven't heard them (or heard of them) then think 60's inspired indie pop with ever so slight sinister undertones and you're pretty much there.
It's a half hour long triumph of an album, full of hooks and joy, and whilst it feels all joyous and happy and lovestruck, the reverb applied makes things feel just a little uneasy (coupled with spoken excerts from cult leader). Then there's the bitterness as well, 'Never Heal Myself' is a case in point with it's lyric "I can never heal myself, so fuck you'.
It's an album of the frustations then, but it never allows that to get in the way of it's Spectoresque musical tendancies or it's melodic joys. Sure there are moments when the album misses a little, and it could have done with a closer with a bit more oomph as 'Rave On' as great as it is, doesn't quite hit the mark. Still there are more than enough excellent songs here - 'Bumper', 'Abducted', 'Never Heal Myself', 'Go Outside' - to make this an album definitely worth getting or making sure you hear at any rate.
Cults have made a great summertime pop album here, taking it's cue from 50's/60's pop and surf and bringing it bang up to date and pointing towards an excellent future.
Here's the video for abducted :-
and here's the album on Spotify
It's a half hour long triumph of an album, full of hooks and joy, and whilst it feels all joyous and happy and lovestruck, the reverb applied makes things feel just a little uneasy (coupled with spoken excerts from cult leader). Then there's the bitterness as well, 'Never Heal Myself' is a case in point with it's lyric "I can never heal myself, so fuck you'.
It's an album of the frustations then, but it never allows that to get in the way of it's Spectoresque musical tendancies or it's melodic joys. Sure there are moments when the album misses a little, and it could have done with a closer with a bit more oomph as 'Rave On' as great as it is, doesn't quite hit the mark. Still there are more than enough excellent songs here - 'Bumper', 'Abducted', 'Never Heal Myself', 'Go Outside' - to make this an album definitely worth getting or making sure you hear at any rate.
Cults have made a great summertime pop album here, taking it's cue from 50's/60's pop and surf and bringing it bang up to date and pointing towards an excellent future.
Here's the video for abducted :-
and here's the album on Spotify
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Indietracks announcement 3
So Indietracks has announced the next bunch of bands and, as suspected already, it really is shaping up to be a cracker. I know this isn't much of an inspired blog post considering I'm more or less just copying and pasting from the indietracks blog, but I think the bands speak for themselves; just look at them:-
Help Stamp Out Loneliness are being raved about across the net, Milky Wimpshake are always great value. Elsewhere there's local boys (the mighty) Horowitz and it's fantastic to see that they'll be back at the festival again. Then there's Haiku Salut, who although they contain former members of the Dierdres are really very different to that band, all beautiful instrumentation and swoonsomeness. It's varied further by the brilliantly named and riotiously entertaining Anguish Sandwich.
So, yeah, it's a varied and brilliant line up this year as you can see from the below plagiarism. So what are you waiting for you've only got another 3 weeks to get those early bird tickets. Snap to it! Announcement follows...
"Help Stamp Out Loneliness, whose Krautrock-inspired poptastic debut record is a clear contender for the album of the year.
Milky Wimpshake, Newcastle’s punk pop legends, with three ace albums and numerous fantastic singles under their belts.
Just Handshakes (We’re British), described by Rough Trade as “officially one of the best UK indie pop bands around”, and with a recent single on the legendary Elefant Records.
Band A Part, a charming Spanish indiepop duo, again continuing our festival’s Elefant Records connection.
Amor De Dias, amazing collaboration between The Clientele frontman Alasdair Maclean and Pipas’ Lupe Nunez-Fernandez.
They’re joined by bundles of other fantastic bands. The following have also been added to the main stages:
Guatafan (Spain), A Fine Day For Sailing, Sloppy Joe (Japan), The History of Apple Pie, Horowitz , Frankie Machine, Haiku Salut, Victoria & Jacob, World of Fox, Ace Bushy Striptease, Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement, Moustache of Insanity, Anguish Sandwich, The Proctors.
And the following will be playing acoustically on the trains:
The Whatevers, Peru, Oxo Foxo, Graeme Elston (Love Parade/Pure/Slipside), Mat Patalano (The Specific Heats)(US), Remi Parson (Electrophonvintage/The Sunny Street).
Headliners already announced for this year’s Indietracks include Edwyn Collins, The Hidden Cameras, Jeffrey Lewis, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Jonny, Ringo Deathstarr and Math and Physics Club"
Help Stamp Out Loneliness are being raved about across the net, Milky Wimpshake are always great value. Elsewhere there's local boys (the mighty) Horowitz and it's fantastic to see that they'll be back at the festival again. Then there's Haiku Salut, who although they contain former members of the Dierdres are really very different to that band, all beautiful instrumentation and swoonsomeness. It's varied further by the brilliantly named and riotiously entertaining Anguish Sandwich.
So, yeah, it's a varied and brilliant line up this year as you can see from the below plagiarism. So what are you waiting for you've only got another 3 weeks to get those early bird tickets. Snap to it! Announcement follows...
"Help Stamp Out Loneliness, whose Krautrock-inspired poptastic debut record is a clear contender for the album of the year.
Milky Wimpshake, Newcastle’s punk pop legends, with three ace albums and numerous fantastic singles under their belts.
Just Handshakes (We’re British), described by Rough Trade as “officially one of the best UK indie pop bands around”, and with a recent single on the legendary Elefant Records.
Band A Part, a charming Spanish indiepop duo, again continuing our festival’s Elefant Records connection.
Amor De Dias, amazing collaboration between The Clientele frontman Alasdair Maclean and Pipas’ Lupe Nunez-Fernandez.
They’re joined by bundles of other fantastic bands. The following have also been added to the main stages:
Guatafan (Spain), A Fine Day For Sailing, Sloppy Joe (Japan), The History of Apple Pie, Horowitz , Frankie Machine, Haiku Salut, Victoria & Jacob, World of Fox, Ace Bushy Striptease, Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement, Moustache of Insanity, Anguish Sandwich, The Proctors.
And the following will be playing acoustically on the trains:
The Whatevers, Peru, Oxo Foxo, Graeme Elston (Love Parade/Pure/Slipside), Mat Patalano (The Specific Heats)(US), Remi Parson (Electrophonvintage/The Sunny Street).
Headliners already announced for this year’s Indietracks include Edwyn Collins, The Hidden Cameras, Jeffrey Lewis, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Jonny, Ringo Deathstarr and Math and Physics Club"
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