R.I.P Mark Linkous

It saddens me immensely to have to be writing another r.i.p blog entry so soon after the death of Jay Reatard, but the passing of Mark Linkous formerly of Sparklehorse deserves a blog entry.

Mark took his own life (he had attempted such a thing in the past), his family issued this statement "It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there’s a star for you." I don't really think I could say anything else as eloquently as that, but I'd like to try.

I came across Mark and Sparklehorse through the single 'Hammering The Cramps' which I'd heard played on radio 1, but it wasn't until reading a review of 'Good Morning Spider' in the NME of all places that my love for him and his music really grew. I bought that record in the summer of 1998 and I've played it at least once every couple of months every year since. I think it's that good. It's lo-fi and experimental, but it's poppy and punky. It has heart in spades too. It's a dark record, but it's a joyful record, and contains some of the loveliest music and lyrics. Words such as "There will come a time gigantic waves will crush the junk I've saved. When the moon explodes or floats away, I'll lose the souvenirs I've made.
Anyway I loved it, and that record carried me through some quite sad times.

After that I followed Mark Linkous through his musical life and numerous collaborations. From his, perhaps, overlooked collaboration with Nina Persson (of the Cardigans) as A Camp; through to the record he made with Dangermouse last year, whilst taking in the 2 subsquent Sparklehorse records he released. The music of the man has permeated my life for so long it seems a little wrong to think he won't be with us.

My saddest moment, is that a few years ago I lived with my parents in Blackburn and never went to again gigs (I had no friends living near me). After years of nothing, Sparklehorse released 'Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain and toured it. I got a ticket. I was so excited, then the day came and I chickened out of going taking the 1hr train ride to Manchester to see them. I regret that to this day, and it hurts that I won't ever get to see them now.

Another terribly sad thing is that Mark had apparently almost finished a new record, and that 'Dark Night Of The Soul' the album he recorded with Dangermouse was going to get an official release. So much promise still to come. I really feel that we've lost one of the greatest musicians of the past decade or two, and that's the saddest thing of all. But I hope that something good comes of his death; I really hope that people who have never had the fortune of listening to some of the wonderful stuff he did will discover it posthumously.

Nothing else to say really, I'm sorry I couldn't be more elegant or eloquent. Instead I want to leave you with some videos of a couple of my favourite Sparklehorse songs.





I like 'Hundreds Of Sparrows' best I think. "I'm so sorry, my spirits rarely in my body" Sadly accurate today. The song tells someone that they are "worth hundreds of sparrows" Mark was worth thousands.

Lazy Lines

What's that you say, where have I been? Just being lazy I'm afraid, but I'm back to darken your Friday.

First up, a little self indulgence. I'm rather excited about the fact that Belle and Sebastian have announced tour dates and the fact that they're going to be recording a new album this year. I'm still a big fan, even after the lacklustre 'The Life Pursuit'. I still think they have it in them to pull off something beautiful and wonderful (if Stuart's 'God Help The Girl' stuff was anything to go by they do) and I can't help but really look forward to that. Anyway here's the self indulgent bit; I'm only talking about this so I can post this video of 'Is it Wicked not to care'. It's one of my favourite songs of theirs from my favourite record. The album just reminds me completely of spring, which fits in perfectly with the weather today.




Elsewhere this week I've been listening to the new Morning Benders record, I mentioned them a few posts back, which you may remember of you are one of our infrequent visitors. Anyway the new record 'Big Echo' is really from good indeed. It sags slightly in the middle of the record, but for the best part it's all sweetly sung harmonies, glossy production, hooks galore and happiness. Better still you can stream it all here. I hope you enjoy it.

Continuing my theme of arriving at bands/artists slightly later than other people I've just encountered Zee Avi who makes sweet and soothing solo music, just the right thing for an early morning.

That's it today, I'll attempt to update this blog a little more regularly again from now on. Oh yes, one finally thing.. I've been told that the M.J from M.J Hibbett actually stands for Michael Jackson, as he's such a big fan.

Shorty

Hi. Let me apologise in advance for the extremely short blog post I'm going to deliver today. Just seems that music news, or more importantly music news that I want to report, seems a little thin on the ground today.

So because of that I've retreated to the refuge of Bandcamp again. This time I want talk about 'The Curiously Strong Peppermints', they're aren't new so perhaps you've heard them already, but I guess there's enough people out there who haven't to make posting about it worthwhile.

Anyway, apart from the rather strange name, the band make music that sounds a little like the Beach Boys, and wouldn't be out of place working with Elephant 6. Pop harmonies and strange sounds abound. My personal favourite is 'Flannery O'Connor' and not just because it's named after the fantastic southern gothic author, in fact it's pop sensibilities and sunshine are a world away from the darker elements of O'Connor's work.

You can have a listen right here if you should have the inclination.

Shirley Lee

Do you miss Spearmint? Or perhaps more importantly, do you remember Spearmint? You should. They had a fair bit of airplay in the mid 1990's, in particular with the song 'Sweeping The Nation', album 'A Week Away' was critically acclaimed all over the place, and then they seemed to drop out of the public conciousness. Which is a terrible shame because they followed it up with more cracking records, not least 2006's 'Paris In A Bottle' a concept album of sorts, packed to bursting with hooks and singalongs. If you've never heard them or forgotten how great they can be, you might want to listen to 'A Week Away' on Spotify - Spearmint – A Week Away (Special Edition). Why? Because towards the end of the year, the band release a new album and I expect it to be great; the reason for this is that lead Spearmint Shirley Lee (or Mr. Shirley Lee) as the press sometimes dub him, has just released his eponymous debut album with backing from the rest of Spearmint, so obstensibly a Spearmint record. It's good too, or as much as I've heard of it. It sounds like Spearmint, which is a great thing. Songs tinged with melancholy and nostalgia that occasionally sound a bit like the Lightning Seeds or at times a lighter touched Belle and Sebastian. It's definitely worth a listen, and it's quiet brilliance is quite likely to suck you in, plus rather brilliantly there's a fair number of tracks to listen to HERE, so you've really got no excuse.

Elsewhere I've been keeping an eye out for news of 'The Bundles'. The band lineup is a certain kind of indie-kids wet dream featuring as it does, Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis and Jack Lewis. Plus Anders Griffin who has played with Regina Spektor amongst others. With a line-up like that there's a chance that they could produce something brilliant. The album itself is due in March, I think, but I managed to find a song called 'Pirates Declare War' which promises some good stuff. It sounds like most of the songs from Jeffrey Lewis' '12 Crass Songs' album or some of 'City and Eastern Songs', which is of course a great thing. You can hear it by following the upcoming link.

Pirates Declare War

Finally, simply because I've got the urge to listen to more Jeffrey Lewis now, here's a short film for Lewis' song 'Champion Jim'. Like many of his short film songs I don't think that this has been officially released, but it's brilliant.

(put) Your hands (together)

Hiya. Once again it's a bit of a digest today.

First up, have you heard the first single from 'The New Pornographers' upcoming album? I have. I really like TNP, it's hard not to. Ostensibly a supergroup they make some really great spiky pop tunes. That said, although I liked some of last album 'Challengers' it didn't really resonate with me as much as previous albums like 'Twin Cinema' or 'Mass Romantic' had. That said, both Carl Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case have seperately all released brilliant new material recently, so I have high hopes for this new record, so let's go back to the single; it's called 'Your hands (together)' I must admit it didn't quite click with me on first listen, although I think that's partly due to listening to it on a netbook with slightly tinny speakers. Having listened to it since I've come to love it already, I think it's closer to 'Electric Version' or 'Mass Romantic' in sound (particularly with the Neko vocal) and that is a really good thing. If you're a New Pornographers fan, I think you'll love it, and if you're not a fan or have never heard them before, then give it a go eh? It can be heard here:-

http://www.thenewpornographers.com/media.html

In other brief news, there's some freebies out there on the net for you.

Tweefort records (who i've mentioned briefly before) have a compilation series to download for absolutely nothing, which is nothing short of wonderful of them. It's great too.

Oh yes, and the hugely anticipated London Popfest!! (explanation marks bloggers own) have a compilation playlist to listen to. That's available from this link :- http://www.mediafire.com/?v2zqemozllj

I've not listened to it yet, but with the line-up of bands for popfest being as good as it is, that compilation is liable to be nothing short of brilliant.

Bad Poetry

Haiku Salut make
very beautiful music
I really like them.

Apologies for that poor attempt, I'm no Basho , though I think the poem says everything I feel about the band anyway.

Elsewhere, Bandcamp continues to prove a rich gold mine for great bands. Apple Orchard are one such, 'Hit or Miss' and indeed the rest of the new E.P puts me in mind of Sarah records, which is no mean thing. It's reflective and beautiful, I hear echos of Bobby Wratten in some of the vocals, and ghosts of indiepop past in the guitar. I really like this.

Oh and lazy and (borderline) plagiarism means I'm not afraid to just steal things straight from an anorak thread and whack them up here. So, may I also present to you Playpeople. I've heard the name before, but not the music before which is quite remiss of me, especially because they are jolly good.

Righto, sorry to cut this short but there's a rabbit to look after. See you soon.

Band Camp

Look at that title up there. Look at it and tell me what it means to you. Perhaps it makes you think of an American feature film circa 1999 featuring a gone to seed ginger girl and a slightly chubby guy, or perhaps you're thinking of the kind of summer pastime we don't seem to have in England. Though I wish we did. Anyway this post is about neither of those things, though a few days ago I'd have thought the same. Nah THIS band camp is a rather nifty website where bands can share music and people like you and me can listen to it. That's a good thing right? Yes, I know what you're thinking, "aren't there lots of these sites?" There are, yeah, but this one is really great because it seems to be a lot more diverse, and importantly it has a fairly good smattering of indie-pop bands (as well as other genres) sharing stuff on there, in some cases whole albums. Admittedly I have no idea how to get an account for it that isn't an account for bands, and I've not found a search bit on there either, and have had to use google BUT I have found some new (or new to me) bands and I thought I'd share a couple with you.

Firstly the rather brillant 'The Super Cutes'

I love this, I love how the first line of the first song is 'I dream of fluffy kittens' and how tongue in cheek it is, mentioning Zac Efron carries extra points too (as does having a song called Ice-cream and Nazis). I love the whole do it yourself sound of the thing and just the sheer joy and exuberance of it. I listened in a half-awake state this morning, and almost instantly had a big smile on my face and was wide awake, so there you are the musical equivalent of caffiene. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Then Beat radio. I don't quite know what it is about Beat Radio, whether it's the vocal or the crisp drum sound in the background, but there's something there that just gets it's hooks into me and won't let go. There's a hum and a buzz to the music that makes me think of cities (unsuprisingly Hefner's We Love The City pulls this off too), it gives the songs an underlying energy that keeps me wanting to listen. It's something I can see myself coming back to quite a lot.

Anyway, so there you go, Bandcamp. If you figure out how it works any better than I can, let me know.