I only wanna stare you down

It’s been ages, so let’s have another round of ‘songs i fucking love at the moment’, eh?

1. Tunabunny – (Song For My) Solar Sister

(From their forthcoming album Minima Moralia on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records)

2. Cheap Girls – Pure Hate

(From their split 7″ with Lemuria on No Idea Records)

3. Sometimes Always – Be True

(From their free download EP on EardrumsPop)

4. OFF! – Upside Down

(From their First Four EPs compilation on Vice Records)

5. Sourpatch – Cynthia Ann

(From their forthcoming second album on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records)

 

 

Housse de Racket – Alésia (Kitsuné)

Housse de Racket! That’s much more like it in the band name stakes. Sadly it’s not always as much fun in the music department. Alésia is the sound of a million indie bands who’ve heard Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, patronisingly decided that they’ve actually always been a pop group all along (as though indie is anything else, or their ownership of a couple of Velvet Underground records amounted to a paradigm-shifting revolutionary new sound despite the fact that they just sounded like another shitty Arctic Monkeys rip-off). It’s music as made by guitar-toting hipsters suddenly deciding to invest in some synths to ‘y’know, make everything sound proper 80s, like’. It’s a deliberate throwback to retro-futurism that aims for sophisticated chart-fodder but comes across as disco-tinged indie, slightly more edgy than Hard-Fi and infinitely less fun than Junior Senior.

Well, either that or it’s a vaguely-funky French electro-indie band who aren’t quite as good as Phoenix. I dunno.

Still, Housse de Racket!

I Break Horses – Hearts (Bella Union)

 

“I Break Horses”? Good lord. Ever feel like the well of decent band names has run dry? Still, this Stockholm duo’s English is infinitely better than my Swedish, so maybe that’s worth taking into consideration.

Breaking with their country’s long-running indie tradition of ‘twee’ (for want of a better expression) and powerpop, IBH favour an impressive blend of shoegaze and electro-pop, and the results are pretty interesting. In fact they’re somewhere between Julee Cruise, Jenniferever and M83; familiar dense waves of throbbing, textured electronic noise dripping with sadness and reverb. No need to dredge up those horrible ‘sonic cathedral’ cliches (whoops), but this is definitely the sort of thing that’s going to sound utterlyfuckingphenomenal through beerdrunk ears at live shows. At its best it’s utterly beautiful.

Not every track here’s a winner, but there are certainly no out-and-out stinkers. A pretty promising debut, all-in-all.

I sure hope they tour this record.

Jonathan Wilson – Gentle Spirit (Bella Union)

Forest City beardie Jonathan Wilson seems to have quietly built up a decent reputation as a producer and session player, having worked with the likes of Erykah Badu, Elvis Costello and Robbie Robertson. Impressive CV then, and it’s only natural that someone whose natural roles should make music that slots so comfortably into the background. Gentle Spirit isn’t a bad record, by any means – it’s just not especially engaging. As you’d expect, there’s plenty of solid playing (the chiming guitar on Can We Really Party Today? is utterly lovely) and far-more-than-competent musicianship. But that’s not enough.

For a start, Wilson only really has one modus operandi: slow, understated, lengthy folk-rock. Not a problem in itself, but without particularly memorable hooks or dynamic variation, it’s difficult to retain interest from one over-long track to the next.The best moment by far is the pretty (and relatively-brief) Ballad Of The Pines, which conjures up images of Roger McGuinn camping in his back garden whilst declaring himself ‘the outdoor type’.

This record will surely appeal to a certain type of traditionalist muso (the sort who like REAL music played by REAL people with REAL instruments made from REAL trees), but the meandering solos and uninspiring mood are very definitely not WHTB’s bag. Wilson’s hushed voice – like The Clientele’s Alasdair MacLean on a particularly reflective rainy day – is certainly bewitching, and there are moments dotted hither and thither that suggest he has a lot more up his sleeve than this album suggests. It’s just a shame he doesn’t demonstrate it fully.

Kitty Empire reviewed this album for The Observer recently, suggesting (not unreasonably) that “calming music attracts scorn”, despite it being a skillful artform in itself. That’s true, but the calmness itself isn’t the reason that this album won’t make it onto your stereo very often. Artists don’t need to be Black Flag to be interesting. The problem, simply, is that not a lot happens over 78 minutes, and what does happen doesn’t feel essential.  A little chutzpah doesn’t go amiss from time to time.

Fashanu – Cassette Tapette EP (Plan-It-X)

I first came acros this Durham lot when they toured with Imperial Can and ONSIND in 2010. All three bands were great, but Fashanu totally blew me away. Their first EP Science Is Awesome, released on bassist JC’s Discount Horse imprint, was a refreshing dose of shouty-but-sincere pop-punk, and this new offering is a hella impressive step up.

Plenty of punk bands are described as ‘impassioned’, to the extent that the phrase is practically redundant in any critical sense – but Gary, Kate and JC truly love this stuff. That much is evident in the gleeful energy emanating from the stereo. Dangling The Carrot Of Parenthood opens with some exciting riffage, whilst Daryl? This Is John and Bible Belt Pity Fuck are pretty sterling pop songs. The lyrics deal with tricky issues, but they do it with sensitivity and intelligence. And you can put that ‘emo’ heckle down right now: this is quality punk rock we’re talking about here. The two contrasting vocals really shouldn’t work together, but somehow they’re just blessed with that natural chemistry where everything just fits perfectly. The swine.

The highlight is undoubtedly Fuck Meaty Freegans, a catchy-as-hell piece of grown-up navel-gazing. As a neatly-restrained instrumental section gives way to one last chorus of “the sun still sets in the same place every day”, you’ll find yourself wishing that more bands could be this intelligent, this engaging… hell, this good.

I like Fashanu.

A lot.

Cassette Tapette is available on tape (funnily enough) from Discount Horse Records, with lovely artwork from Chris Clavin, but you can also give it a listen on Fashanu’s Bandcamp page.

Yes, it’s fucking political

Yesterday, an article by NME editor Krissi Murison appeared on the Guardian website bemoaning the lack of political music in 2011. The argument goes something along the lines of ‘isn’t it lucky that the NME had The Clash on the cover while there were riots going on – why aren’t there more bands writing about politics nowadays?’ Everett True has already written a pretty succinct response over on Collapse Board, so I’m not going to go overboard in my own musings. But since the original article still appears to be stuck in my craw, I’ll weigh in with some thoughts anyway.

Firstly, although it’s certainly not the same magazine I used to read in school, I have no beef with the NME, nor (by extension) with Murison. If anything she’s overseen a significant improvement in quality from the magazine’s dreadful days under Conor McNicholas – when a double-page photo spread with a few paragraphs of text could pass for a main feature. At least the writing seems to be the focus again, and it’s enthused and (usually) well-informed (certainly not always). There are elements of its content that I don’t particularly enjoy, and some of its misguided attempts to tap into localised scenes can go woefully wrong, but that’s the problem with outsider perspective, especially when it’s widely published. Thanks to the still-growing influence of the internet, and the increased stratification of popular culture, a magazine like the NME simply can’t be the authoritative voice that it wants to be. Perhaps recognising this, the self-aggrandising ‘we invented everything’ tone seems to have died down, and it’s concentrating on music again. Which, regardless of how on-the-money it is, is a good thing.

For all that, however, it still rankles that the editor of the NME can write an article bemoaning the lack of political grit in pop. This, lest we forget, is a music magazine that still publishes an annual ‘cool list’ – a pointless exercise in High Fidelity-style cataloging that has continually placed style over substance. Why do we need to know who’s ‘cool’? Who cares? One of the best things Murison could do for the ailing magazine is to axe that list. When our music critics start to concern themselves with such vacuous, page-filling dross as this, it’s a pretty definite indication that they’re not looking for anything below the surface. They’re as symptomatic of the lack of political pop as the performers are.

But wait – there is no lack of political pop. The article complains that there is no Clash to lead the charge – there are still plenty of punk bands writing political songs, if four chords and some informed shouting is what you want. Look at the folk-punk scene, poplated by the likes of Defiance, Ohio and Ghost Mice. Or, closer to the mainstream, there’s the likes of Against Me!, Gallows and The King Blues – personally I’d rather drink bleach from David Starkey’s tiny, pus-covered severed bellend than listen to any of those three, but nonetheless they’re pop and they’re political… that’s both tick boxes covered, right?

And naturally there’s plenty of other artists from a wealth of genres covering Murison’s criteria – again, Collapse Board has the best summary, which basically saves me the job of compiling anything (phew!). A curmudgeon (hello!) might question whether The Clash are really the best example of a political band in any case – their song most relevant to last week’s events (White Riot) is a clumsy statement at best. Cracking tune, like, but its point still seems awkward, even if its heart is in the right place. This’ll go down well with Clash fans, I’m sure.

The only real argument to consider is that there’s very little of the political in mainstream indie. Gone are the days when Manic Street Preachers would serve up dense polemic to rabid teenagers with scant understanding of what the lyrics actually meant. These days mainstream political rock doesn’t stretch much further than Bono’s sanctimonious blethering, which is unfortunately enough to turn anyone off the idea of charity. But isn’t mainstream society distinctly unpoliticised these days?

Granted, we’re seeing more and more protest against the ConDem government (the university fee protests, for instance), and whether you view last week’s riots as politicised or ‘merely’ political, there are signs that things are changing – basically, people are starting to give a shit. That’s a completely separate debate, of course, and the pages of an indie rock blog that no-one reads are certainly not the place to start it. But mainstream pop isn’t going to change unless society does, and it seems daft to expect pop to reflect anything other than its environment.

An explanation

Yes, the interview in the previous post originally appeared as a Q&A on The Fly website. This is just me playing round with stuff really. And adding other bits (the factfile and the discography mainly) so I can use them in my college portfolio.

So regular readers (er, that’ll be you, Peter) can rest easy in the knowledge that this isn’t a drastic new direction for WHTB by any means.

Phew!

“Purely for fun and artistic expression” – an interview with Bill Janowitz of Buffalo Tom

Bill Janowitz grimaces.

“Eurgh, that’s so sweet,” he says, his face a mixture of disgust and disappointment. “I had such high hopes for this ginger beer as well. That’s awful.”

This is Buffalo Tom’s first trip to the UK in four years, and this isn’t the best of starts. Fizzy pop is clearly a young man’s game. If that presents a challenge, how on earth will they cope with rock’n’roll?

*

First of all, let’s clear something up: this is not a Buffalo Tom reunion tour. Although the band made a conscious decision not to play together for the best part of a decade, they never actually split up. Having toured relentlessly from the late 80s, through indie rock’s overground boom right through to their 1998 album ‘Smitten’, a sabbatical seemed like the right choice for three thirty-something former college buddies.

Then, almost without warning, they re-emerged in 2007 with their seventh album ‘Three Easy Pieces’. Far more breezily upbeat than their later work, it appeared in the wake of well-received reformations from the likes of the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. You could be forgiven for thinking the revered Boston trio were trying to cash in on The Great 90s Indie Rock Revival, but Bill’s keen to settle that score:

“We’re treated like elder statesmen,” he laughs, “but it’s not like we’re turning into this big popular band like The Pixies or something. I’d like that! But we’re very realistic. We’re doing it purely for fun and artistic expression.”

Buffalo Tom (l-r): Bill Janowitz, Tom Maginnis, Chris Colburne

Bands that realize they can carry on for fun tend to be the ones that continue to make good records, WHTB suggests.

“Yeh. I think a lot of it has to do with getting to a certain maturity level. When we were in our 20s, we were just figuring out life. But then we had modest goals. When we signed to SST, that was like putting up a gold record on the wall! We really had no idea that there was a chance for a band like us to make money.

“All those bands we played with, like Nirvana, who became the rock stars for a generation… that wasn’t even on our radar! We were always trying to keep each other in check.”

Despite their time off, Bill refutes the notion that the band are effectively starting all over again.

“It kinda feels as though there was never any time off the road,” he says thoughtfully.

“Very little has changed for us. We’re older, obviously, but we’re going back to places we were going to in our 20s.”

Talk turns to their latest album, the elegantly-mature ‘Skins’. WHTB remarks that it sounds like a band that’s comfortable with its sense of self, which suits Bill fine.

“I’ve always seen Buffalo Tom as a ‘mid-tempo ballad’ kind of band,” he grins.

It’s appropriate that Buffalo Tom should choose to return in the wake of Dinosaur Jr’s successful reunion. Furthermore, WHTB points out, a wave of punk bands has also emerged citing Buffalo Tom as an influence, including Bedford Falls and Cheap Girls.

“There was a period of time where Radiohead mentioned us, early on! I haven’t heard it so much lately.” Bill chuckles to himself at the memory.

“But it’s important to me to understand where music comes from.  Some people don’t really care if we were influenced by Hüsker Dü, but I think it’s really important.”

Buffalo Tom in 1993

Tom Willecome from Bedford Falls has said that Buffalo Tom “combine the sound of ‘classic rock’ with the brevity and punch of punk, and refine it to the point that punk becomes a distant memory but the brevity and punch remain”. Bill is interested that newer bands feel the same way as he did about his own influences.

 

“Hüsker Dü started out like a pure hardcore band, then they developed over the years to incorporate all these influences. It’s not like any band exists within a vacuum,” he says, launching into a history lesson.

 

“We first formed because Chris [Colbourne, bassist] and I would be going to Rolling Stones shows, Echo & The Bunnymen shows, Hüsker Dü, Replacements… we had the same taste in all kinds of stuff. Tom [Maginnis, drummer] as well.”

 

The personel of the band has remained the same since those early days, and Bill agrees this has been important.

“Well, I think the major thing is that we’ve never really broken up. We just stopped recording and touring, and that really helped. If we’d broken up then it might have been more lucrative! Who knows? But we needed to re-establish some balance in our lives.”

Bill’s an affable sort, and clearly comfortable recounting tales of days gone by. While he’s in his element, it would be totally remiss of WHTB not to discuss the band’s career-making appearance on early 90s teen-drama ‘My So-Called Life’. Perhaps inevitably, the band feel a personal connection to that period.

“We ran into this show where the creators were big fans. There were so few years between signing to SST [legendary LA punk record label] and being on a trailer on a Hollywood lodge with Claire Danes sitting on the floor, asking us for stories…

“You’d gotta be careful, because if you wanted to take on mainstream things, you risked alienation of your core audience. But we took it and it really changed our audience – not  that all of a sudden we sold millions of records, but it went from being all dudes at the shows to more younger women. And that was great, just to broaden it.”

Suddenly snapping back to reality, Bill smiles ruefully. “But now it’s gone back to the way it was…”

With the band now settling into middle age, WHTB asks how long Buffalo Tom can continue.

“I dunno, I ask myself that every day. Increasingly as I get older. I think of it as one step at a time: this may be our last record, it may not.”

If it came to that, the self-assured Skins would be a fine way to bow out. And perhaps a very grown-up way to bow out at that. Bill’s brow furrows at the suggestion.

“I’m the young guy in the band, and I’m 44,” he says, leaning forward. “We’re still jumping around and sometimes I just feel silly, but it’s pretty real. I’m not trying to put on a show. If I jump at the end of a song it’s because I’m happy to do it… and happy to still be able to do it!”

Cracking a smile, Bill Janowitz leans back and shrugs.

“I mean, we’re not that old.”

(Will  Fitzpatrick)

BUFFALO TOM FACTFILE:

• The band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986
• All three members of the band were originally guitarists, with Chris Colburne and Tom Maginnis having to learn bass and drums respectively
• Perceived early similarities to another Boston band saw them initially written off as ‘Dinosaur Jr junior’ in their local press
• Their celebrity fans include Glee star Mike O’Malley, who wrote the press release for their latest album Skins
• Buffalo Tom was the final band to appear on The Jon Stewart Show

BUFFALO TOM DISCOGRAPHY

• Buffalo Tom (SST, 1988)
• Birdbrain (Situation 2, 1990)
• Let Me Come Over (Beggar’s Banquet, 1992)
• Big Red Letter Day (Beggar’s Banget, 1993)
• Sleepy-Eyed (Beggar’s Banquet, 1995)
• Smitten (Beggar’s Banquet, 1998)
• Three Easy Pieces (New West Records, 2007)
• Skins (Scrawny, 2011)

Let’s Whisper – ‘The Shortest Days’ (WeePOP!)

Ages ago I said that some people had been kind enough to send me records for review, then promptly failed to do that. Having subjected myself to various beatings by way of self-admonishment, I can now get on with the business of saying stuff about pop music.

Let’s Whisper consists of Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan, who double up as members of Burlington, Vermont’s The Smittens. I’d hesitate to use the word ‘twee’ to describe their other band’s sounds because that comes loaded with all kinds of surface signifiers and sneery rubbishness – but if you ignore all that guff, it’s a pretty accurate description of their sound.

I love The Smittens. Their songs are a rush of pure unrefined sugar.  They’re daisy garlands and ice creams and sunny days and five-year-olds skipping in the grass and everything inbetween. They do, however, make me feel as though I have to rush out to listen to Slayer, if only to restore some sort of natural order.

So I did wonder if a duo consisting of two of their principle songwriters would be much different. They’re actually a pretty different beast. Albeit still the sort of beast that you can pet, rather than one you’d run away from in terror.

A good deal of The Shortest Days is powered by simple electronic drum beats, and it’s all delightfully melodic. California Girls has a beautifully understated wistfulness to it that most bands just can’t do, whilst pretty much nicking the chorus to one of The Beach Boys’ more sunny moments. It’s lovely stuff. In fact, most of Dana’s songs (notably this, 2 Hours and Jackpot) purr along with this sort of subtle sadness at their root. Colin, meanwhile, offers upbeat numbers like Meet Me On The Dancefloor and more reflective fare such as All Happy Endings.

It’s easy to compare this  to The Smittens, because even if the songs are a little less ‘up’, they’re still the same songwriters. But if there’s anyone that this reminds me of most, it’d be The Postal Service. Maybe it’s the way those syn-drums pulse so relentlessly, or maybe it’s the layered trade-off harmonies, but something about this record shapes the vocals and pushes them into Gibbard-esque flakes of loveliness. It works well, in any case.

So this ain’t exactly ‘twee’, although by the same token it’s hardly gonna cause your Isis-loving friends to go ‘woah, these guys rock!’ But that’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t matter either way. What is important is that Let’s Whisper have crafted a gorgeously pop record that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but won’t leave you untouched either. True believers, this is a classic example of bedroom pop transcending its limitations, and becoming musical prettiness personified. It’s limited to 500 copies though, so act fast.

I can see me listening to this a lot this summer.

http://www.letswhisper.com/

http://weepop.net/releases.php

Bits and pieces don’t equal the whole

Yeesh, it’s been a while. Since then, labels have been kind (dumb? no, kind…) enough to send me stuff to review on these here pages. Which will happen in due course. Once I’ve given it all a fair few spins.

In the meantime, here’s one of those cop-out ‘what’s been blowing my mind lately’ posts. DIGGIT.

1. Sourpatch – Deli Dream

(from the totally superlative Mira Mija EP on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records)

2. Cheap Girls – Ft. Lauderdale

(from My Roaring 20′s on Paper + Plastick… still not bored of this, somehow)

3. Hickey – California Redemption

(fuuuuck yeh! from s/t album reissue on 1234. i’m a latecomer to Hickey. they fucking rule)

4. Eux Autres – The City All To Himself

(stars of the first show to be promoted as a WHTB shebang recently. except on here, of course. from Cold City on HHBTM)

5. Bad Banana – Celery

(acoustic version of a great track from super-lo-fi pop-punks’ demo album. i heart the shit out of this band)