This Sunday, April 4, Pam Berry of Black Tambourine will be rockin' the decks gently at the Hangover Lounge in support of her old band's eponymous collection that's just hit the shops courtesy of Slumberland.
Tracks from the album will be played PLUS! there'll be chances to win copies of the album and posters and badges. Turn up and get lucky.
Best Coast are touring the UK. I’m there with bells on and I bet you’ll be too. They’re playing the Camden Crawl and the Great Escape in Brighton as well, but non-festival dates are:
Sun 2nd May 2010 Jericho Tavern - Oxford
Mon 3rd May 2010 The Joiners – Southampton
Tue 4th May 2010 Madame JoJo's - London
Wed 5th May 2010 The Louisiana - Bristol
Thu 6th May 2010 The Bodega Social - Nottingham
Fri 7th May 2010 The Deaf Institute - Manchester
Sat 8th May 2010 Korova - Liverpool
Tue 11th May 2010 The Hare & Hounds - Kings Heath – Birmingham
A reminder that The Dentists are returning to the stage tomorrow night (Thursday March 25) at Camden Dingwalls with their original line-up for the first time since 1986. Support comes from The Claim so if you're in London or its environs you'd have to be mad to miss this gig (tickets). A couple of archive items to illustrate this post: the press release from The Dentists' 1987 ep, Writhing On The Shagpile, and a press photo of The Claim from 1990 or 1991.
This new Scottish band have just two songs on their myspace and both are beauts. Country swing meets powerpop head on like the Lemonheads circa It’s A Shame About Ray, or Teenage Fanclub at the top of their game. Surely it can be only a matter of time before Captured Tracks open their chequebook to secure a recording deal.
In answer to “about Water Wolves” they’ve posted a picture of a highland cow and you know that they’re referencing James Kirk’s post-Orange Juice band Memphis, whose single, You Supply The Roses, hits the countrified jangle pop sweet spot just so.
Hats off to Brogues who’s booked them to support The Lodger at Mono on April 20. If I were anywhere near Glasgow, I’d be there like a shot.
Dan Willson says: "A video of a beautiful King Creosote/Adem/Pictish Trail cover of No Cigarettes that leaves me pretty much speechless." Recorded in BBC Scotland's campervan. Astonishing stuff.
Anyone who's seen Dan live will need no encouragement to attend at least one of these shows: 20/03/10 : EDINBURGH Limbo @ The Voodoo Rooms 25/03/10 : SHEFFIELD The Red House 26/03/10 : NOTTINGHAM Lee Rosy's 01/04/10 : LONDON Slaughtered Lamb (w/ King Creosote) 05/04/10 : DORDRECHT Bibelot (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 06/04/10 : GHENT Cafe Video (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 07/04/10 : LUXEMBOURG D:qliq (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 08-10/04/10 : ROTTERDAM Motel Mozaique Festival 11/04/10 : THUN Cafe Mokka (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 12/04/10 : FELDKIRCH Sonderbar (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 13/04/10 : GRAZ Scherbe (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 14/04/10 : VIENNA Chelsea (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 16/04/10 : ERLANGEN E-werk (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 17/04/10 : BERLIN Glashaus (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 18/04/10 : HAMBURG Hafenklang (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 19/04/10 : COLOGNE Kulturbunker (w/ Benni Hemm Hemm) 06/05/10 : LONDON Union Chapel (w/ Woodpigeon)
Ain’t Got Nobody was tucked away on a b-side in 1968 and is still waiting to be dusted down and reissued – amazing when you consider the lush Philly Soul orchestration, midtempo swing and fingersnappin’ groove. If Motown had released this, there wouldn’t be an oldies station in the world that didn’t have it on its playlist.
Beach Fossils’ debut single, Daydream, sounds like an outtake from New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies, stripped of disco accoutrements and made to stare moodily out of the window. Disaffected romantics need look no further for solace.
Warning: the b-side, Desert Sand, contains goth influence, but seeing as their myspace is fleshed out with songs that will have everyone (ok, me) cheering “it’s like the great lost Factory Records album only played by Real Estate!” their forthcoming album is going to be a must-buy.
This Best Of Bossy record dares you not to play it again and again. 9 tracks at 45rpm, it zips by on wit, sass, punky venom and girl group swagger. Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone was in Bossy, which may explain why their recordings have been posthumously released; what’s less clear is why Bossy never got the breaks unlike the Vivian Girls.
Bossy are far less garage than the VGs and more DIY pop; their sound is cleaner, too – well, as clean as a snot-nosed Shangri-Las playing at CBGB’s in 1977 would have been – and free from reverb swamp: this album would wipe the bathroom with a VGs best of. If John Hughes were alive, you get the feeling he’d option the rights to the tongue-in-cheek high school hustle of Walk Around.
This release is limited edition, natch, but without the marketing power of the VGs it’s readily available.
Twenty years ago, Standard Fare would’ve been called indie and their debut album would’ve easily shifted several thousand copies. Today, indie’s split into so many micro genres that it’s hard to say where they fit, but given the magnificence of debut album The Noyelle Beat, everyone's going to claim them as their own.
Opening with the crashing guitars and wringing lyrics of Love Doesn’t Just Stop (“how can it not be me when I was all you had?”) which combines student disco anthem with bedsit angst, Standard Fare set the pace for a maelstrom of frenzied pop-rock and intemperate passions. Philadelphia shows their ambitious range, addressing poverty, sexual frustration, religion and global warming in three-and-a-half minutes.
Twenty years ago, Standard Fare would’ve been called college rock in the USA. They’re going to SXSW this month, where their intelligent yet unpretentious and well-crafted yet punchy songs might catapult them to a bigger stage.
Seeing as how at their London gig last week, bassist/vocalist Emma Kupa suffixed Fifteen’s bittersweet compunction of ephebophilia with “nothing happened”, they’re getting ready for deserved mass attention this year.
New Century sounds like Johnny Cash interrupted the recording sessions of Tindersticks’ Can Our Love – gravelly, achingly lonesome and desolately soulful. Together with the b-side, Painter Of Night, you could imagine them soundtracking key scenes in Paris, Texas and being no less effective than Ry Cooder’s masterly score.
You can listen to the songs on myspace where there's information on buying this digital release.
This Sunday, April 4, Pam Berry of Black Tambourine will be rockin' the decks gently at the Hangover Lounge in support of her old band's eponymous collection that's just hit the shops courtesy of Slumberland.
Best Coast are touring the UK. I’m there with bells on and I bet you’ll be too. They’re playing the Camden Crawl and the Great Escape in Brighton as well, but non-festival dates are:
Ain’t Got Nobody was tucked away on a b-side in 1968 and is still waiting to be dusted down and reissued – amazing when you consider the lush Philly Soul orchestration, midtempo swing and fingersnappin’ groove. If Motown had released this, there wouldn’t be an oldies station in the world that didn’t have it on its playlist. 
Beach Fossils’ debut single, Daydream, sounds like an outtake from New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies, stripped of disco accoutrements and made to stare moodily out of the window. Disaffected romantics need look no further for solace. 
This Best Of Bossy record dares you not to play it again and again. 9 tracks at 45rpm, it zips by on wit, sass, punky venom and girl group swagger. Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone was in Bossy, which may explain why their recordings have been posthumously released; what’s less clear is why Bossy never got the breaks unlike the Vivian Girls.
Twenty years ago, Standard Fare would’ve been called indie and their debut album would’ve easily shifted several thousand copies. Today, indie’s split into so many micro genres that it’s hard to say where they fit, but given the magnificence of debut album The Noyelle Beat, everyone's going to claim them as their own.
New Century sounds like Johnny Cash interrupted the recording sessions of Tindersticks’ Can Our Love – gravelly, achingly lonesome and desolately soulful. Together with the b-side, Painter Of Night, you could imagine them soundtracking key scenes in Paris, Texas and being no less effective than Ry Cooder’s masterly score.