Robert Forster UK dates and book signing

Robert Forster is playing a few UK dates to promote his excellent book, The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll:
Tue 13 Jazz Cafe London show
Wed 14 Stables Milton Keynes with Richard Hawley
Thu 15 Latitude Festival - Literary Arena 9pm stage
Fri 16 6:30pm Rough Trade shop signing



A special box set edition of the book, limited to 500 copies and signed by Robert, including a signed offset litho art print and a 10" vinyl EP featuring new recordings by Robert of songs originally recorded by four of the artists discussed in the book ('I’ll Spend My Life With You' by The Monkees;
'The Prisoner' by The Saints; 'Just A King In Mirrors' by The Go-Betweens; and 'Walcott' by Vampire Weekend), is available for an eye-watering £75.

This Sunday (July 4), The Go-Between Bridge, spanning the Brisbane River, opens.

Magic Kids album and free MP3

Roll up your sleeves, loosen your necktie, light the barbecue and drink the punch bowl dry: Magic Kids’ debut album Memphis hits the shops on August 24 and you can gird your loins with a free MP3, Summer, before placing your order.

Omas - What You're Looking For

When did DJs stop cutting up old funk records to make new sounds this revitalising? It must have been years before The Go! Team – whose work leans towards, but can’t quite match, the skills of Manchester’s Omas – revived the technique for the mainstream. Massive drums, hollering vocals and funky guitars make What You’re Looking For perfect for sunny days and sweaty nights. The b-side, I’m So Dizzy, uses a bit too much James Brown and reminds you that maybe people stopped making these records when they kept going back to the same JB samples; the a-side, though, is an all-killer classic.

Kid Canaveral - Shouting At Wildlife

Kid Canaveral's album, Shouting At Wildlife, is punky, punchy and poppy. It had me reaching for The Wedding Present’s George Best and The Delgados’ Domestiques in fond reminiscence; anyone who’s fallen for Standard Fare’s superb album this year will be just as taken by these spiky tales of alcohol-fuelled mayhem and heartbroken gloom.

As it’s been three years since their debut single, and 18 months since their most recent 7”, it might have seemed as if Kid Canaveral were running out of steam; this album, though, swats away any such idea and suggests that even if they're not seeing success right now, their time, like Pulp’s did, will come.

Tigercats

Dear Fire Escape Talking,
After having a look on Fire Escape Talking, and coming to the inevitable conclusion you are an individual of taste and discretion, it occured to me you might enjoy "Konny Huck", the new single from East London indie band Tigercats.

Love to you all, darlings,
Haircut Records

Dear Haircut Records,

I waited a week to “enjoy” Konny Huck, as I didn’t want the blanket media coverage of a song about a telly presenter getting engaged to another telly presenter to cloud my views. Now the dust has settled, it’s occurred to me that it sounds like two not very good songs played simultaneously by a school band.

They’ve let the school down, they’ve let their parents down and, more importantly, they’ve let themselves down. The song Stevie Nicks confirms that they’re not big, clever or funny.

Whitechapel Boys, however, is brilliant. Can they write more songs that draw on Hefner’s urban whine, the Modern Lovers’ dogged romanticism and Daniel Johnston’s mini anthems? Can they?

They’d be one of my favourite bands if that were the case.

Love to you, too, darling,

Fire Escape Talking

EDIT: Haircut Records have asked me to point out that Konny Huck isn't about the telly star's betrothal; it was written some time before the announcement and the timing of the release was coincidental. I am happy to issue this clarification.

Lost Soul: Lisa Stansfield

Seriously! Lisa's last single for a major, 8-3-1, which was withdrawn in 2001 has been issued as a one-sided 7" by Sonic Wax. It's not hard to find the withdrawn CD single, and the album it's on, Face Up, is easily available, but this vinyl release presses home the point that outside of the UK's modern soul rooms 8-3-1 has been unfairly overlooked.



This live recording of 8-3-1 at Ronnie Scott's is excellent; the single is even better.

Edwyn Collins new album

Exciting news in this press release:
Edwyn Collins has announced details of the release of his new album, his 7th solo long-player, and a London show in September.

Losing Sleep, will be released through Heavenly Recordings on Monday September 13th 2010. It includes tracks co-written and featuring Johnny Marr, Roddy Frame, Alex Kapranos & Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand, Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers, Ryan Jarman of The Cribs and The Drums and is the first album Edwyn’s written and recorded since his serious illness in 2005.

The full track listing of the album is:

1. Losing Sleep
2. What Is My Role? (Co-written with Ryan Jarman)
3. Do It Again (Co-written with Alex Kapranos & Nick McCarthy)
4. Humble
5. Bored
6. In Your Eyes (Co-written with The Drums)
7. I Still Believe In You (Co-written with Ryan Jarman)
8. Come Tomorrow, Come Today (Co-written with Johnny Marr)
9. It Dawns On Me (Co-written with Romeo Stodart)
10. Over The Hill
11. All My Days (Co-written with Roddy Frame)
12. Searching For The Truth

The 12-track album was recorded at Edwyn’s own West Heath Studios between November 2008 and May 2010 and produced by Edwyn and Sebastian Lewsley The pair have worked together since 1993 and more recently stood shoulder to shoulder as Edwyn has regained his studio skills.

It also features Edwyn’s regular cast of band members - Paul Cook, Dave Ruffy, Carwyn Ellis, Sean Read, Barrie Cadogan, Andy Hackett, Luca Santucci and William Collins.

Edwyn has also announced a number of performances over the summer and a headline show at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The full list of shows is:

AUGUST
15th Inverness Book Festival (Acoustic show)
SEPTEMBER
10th Larmer Tree Gardens End Of The Road Festival
23rd London Queen Elizabeth Hall

Tickets for the QEH show are priced at £22 & £18 and will be available via www.southbankcentre.co.uk from 9am Thursday June 3rd.
Further headline shows will be announced shortly.

A 7-cd Orange Juice box-set will also released on the same day via Domino. The set includes the 4 original studio albums, which have been unavailable for a number of years.

Lost Soul: Pamela Beatty

The narcotic rush of love’s first flush is set to a driving northern beat with handclaps from start to finish and dizzying orchestral flourishes in Talking Eyes. Beatty belts out her vocal in an r’n’b holler with exquisite phrasing – if you’re not slayed by the “uh-huh shush” coda to “baby I can’t forget the night we met” then check that you’ve still got a pulse – in a song that's violently beautiful. They just don’t get much better than this.

Sweater Girls

If Grease 3: The Indiepop Years ever gets made, LA’s Sweater Girls will be first in line to record the soundtrack. Their debut three-track 7” ep combines the catchiness and innocence of malt shop pop with the edginess and sweet darkness of indiepop.




Their lyrical preoccupations – stolen kisses, the traumas of teen romance and parental deceit – break no new ground, but are delivered with such charisma and swagger that they’re completely compelling.

There’s plenty more potential hits on their myspace and it can surely be only a matter of time before schoolkids the world over are emblazoning the legend Sweater Girls - right next to the declaration of love for Best Coast - on their pencil cases.

Felt fanzine fandango

This Sunday, June 6, Foxtrot Echo Lima Tango, a Felt fanzine brought to you by the combined endeavours of band members, fans, friends and old sparring partners, is launched at the Hangover Lounge. Director Paul Kelly will be there shooting footage for the Lawrence of Belgravia documentary. Former Felt bassist Phil King will be on the decks, while among the great and the good already confirmed as attending is guitar legend (Felt! The Servants! Apple Boutique!) John Mohan.

To whet your appetite, here's an interview with Lawrence from Sounds (no date, but it was about November 89 from what I remember).
















And if that wasn't enough - well it is, but I'm spoiling you - here's Supermarket's eponymous single on Ice Rink in 1992 (despite the claim that "Supermarket are two young boys from Denmark", this was Lawrence in full electronic mode).
MP3