This is happening tomorrow evening and the lovely NATASHA KHAN will be performing. Our own Sophie is on the committee and it’s at the fab Whitechapel gallery so what’s not to like? If this floats your boat then, by God, head down. Details in a reasonable font size can be found here.
The Ivors have been announced and four of our writers – BAT FOR LASHES, PATCH WILLIAM , FRASER T SMITH and NINA WOODFORD– have been nominated. This is THE award that matters to songwriters so we are absolutely delighted. Check out the IVOR site for more deets and observe below for all the nomineeeees..
I went on holiday in the sun. Now I’m home. And from the ether comes a playlist covering all the ground thereon. For your pleasure. Cast off the beach towel of silence and jump into the cooling water of spotify. Trunks not included. Have a listen now. HERE.
In other news BAT FOR LASHES has won Best Alternative Act at the UK Asian Music Awards! Which we are very pleased to hear // BROKEN BELLS are being given plenty of flattering words. Here’s what the Times say / the Independent say /DiS say. But of course, make your own mind up about it. // And that is all. For now.
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Andrew Bird, Bat For Lashes, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Gossip, Metric, Nathan Fake, Patrick Wolf, The Big Pink, The Cribs, The Horrors, The Low Anthem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
‘Come on, chaps – let’s have a listen to that new joint from Chrysalis. Thompson’s gone on a pimp juice reccy. Last one to get crunk is a wet blanket’
Indeed. Well, there’s nothing like gathering in Norwegian woollen jumpers, lighting pipes and giving the last 12 months in music a right going over. That’s exactly what we’ve spent the last month doing. We now have a massive pipe tobacco dependance, broad 1940s accents and a penchant for calling each other by surname only. More truthfully, 2009 has been a sensational year for Chrysalis artists. Much lauded albums released, big gigs played, festival crowds won over, new artists signed, ads synched, tv spots spotted, Mercury prize nominations nominated, picnics played, Letterman’s performed, end of year lists invited.. So with that in mind for your aural (and sexual?) pleasure (no, probably not) here compiled are our musical revelations of the year. The ones that will endure in our minds for the longest into the new decade and beyond. Of course the choosing was very difficult. But 2009 according to Gareth, Sophie, David and Will was all about this:
Gareth ‘I’m the boss so I’m not putting anything here’ Smith:
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YYY’s ‘Zero’ – Is the bit about a minute and a half in when the song is launched into orbit that makes me smile. On the tube. At randoms. YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.
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THE CRIBS ‘Cheat on Me’. Effortless, honest and unpretentious.
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EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS ‘Home’. A singalong stroke of brilliance by a band of 15 smiling people on stage – a cult you want to join.
Sophie ‘S’aink S’aink’ Urquhart:
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THE BIG PINK ‘Too young to love (Unkle Remix)’ – Ridiculously cool track in itself. The Unkle remix just gives it that special s’aink s’aink. Pure ear joy.
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THE LOW ANTHEM ‘Charlie Darwin’ – This song makes me want to smile and cry simultaneously.
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GOSSIP ‘Four Letter Word’ – I love the insanely catchy synth bassline in this track which makes me feel like I’m at an 80’s discotheque every time I listen to it, which is a lot.
David ‘Why use one word when fifty will do’ O’Bryan:
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BAT FOR LASHES ‘Daniel’ – Despite being drenched to the core at her Somerset House gig, seeing her perform a flawless rendition of this mystical pop song of Fleetwood Mac proportions is a definite gig highlight of ther year for me.
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NATHAN FAKE ‘The turtle’ – I love techno when it’s for the head, like Aphex Twin. I love techno when it’s for the dancefloor, like Dubfire. But when you have techno that’s for the head AND the dancefloor in one song, it’s perfection. This song is just that.
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PATRICK WOLF ‘Hard Times’ – His show at the Palladium is one of my favourite gigs of the year… seeing him sing this song in a giant glitter cape, whilst spinning like a pagan dandy, is one of my music highlights of the year.
Will ‘I grew attached to it’ Theakston:
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THE HORRORS ‘Mirrors Image’ I have listened to this song 7,863 times this year. I marked each play by dropping a small paper effigy of the band in my ‘I love the Horrors bassline’ hope chest. That’s not weird.
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METRIC ‘Satellite Mind’ The greatness of this song and Metric’s album should be screamed from the rooftops. We’re not allowed on our roof anymore, so I’ll scream it from a, er, blog.
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ANDREW BIRD ‘Fitz and Dizzyspells’ If you could open a can and summer came out this song would be the accompaniment. LOVE the bird.
Oh, and without further ado..
It’s the Mercurys today and it remains to be said that BAT FOR LASHES and THE HORRORS have made two extraordinary albums that we are massively proud to be connected to. Our fingers are crossed. Come on!
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Bat For Lashes, Brendan Benson, Karen O, RAIN MACHINE, The Big Pink, The Horrors, TVOTR
Here’s Minnie the Minx:
And here are the links… (is that the sound of a barrel being scraped):
// Dazed and Confused streaming Into The Pink: Michael Schmelling’s behind the scenes film of the THE BIG PINK right here // TV ON THE RADIO‘s Kyp Malone unleashes solo project, RAIN MACHINE here // BAT FOR LASHES to release special edition re-issue in September // In case you were living in Space and didn’t know, KAREN O has soundtracked Spike Jonze’s-soon-to-hit-the-big-screen-adaptation-of-Maurice-Sendak’s-beloved-Where the Wild Things Are. Can’t wait to see this! Details unveiled here. // BRENDAN BENSON gets a fine write up in the Guardian. // And THE HORRORS release new video for (track of the year?) Mirror’s Image. //
Marvellous.
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Andrew Bird, Bat For Lashes, Engineers, Metric, School Of Seven Bells, St Vincent, The Frequency, The Horrors, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Good Morning. Here is the Lynx:
And here are the links:
// Drowned in Sound’s ‘Best tracks of 2009…so far’ features YEAH YEAH YEAHS, SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS, ST VINCENT, METRIC, ANDREW BIRD, BAT FOR LASHES and THE HORRORS. Check out here // ‘In short, the old model is dead but the new one is still an ugly mutant’ – Sean DiS comments on the state of the industry. Nice piece with METRIC getting a lot of column width. // THE FREQUENCY‘s debut EP, ‘Morning to 3am’, album of the week and much lauded by the peeps at Dance Music Review here. // ENGINEERS get a stonking 8/10 album review in DiS. Lovely. (by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed today is DiS day ;))
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Bat For Lashes, Blondie, Gossip, Spiritualized, Thom Yorke, White Lies
It’s not easy to do a review of Latitude festival without sounding like a snob down to its bad reputation as being the most middle class festival. This is perhaps because it integrates literature, poetry, theatre and music. However… 4 days and 20 000 people later it had 2 fights and 1 robbery, a constant supply of loo roll and sanitizer, a lot of security and bar staff and, for me, this is what I want from a festival. Dharling.
Highlight no.1: 12 noon Sunday 19th July my snooze is interrupted by the loudest cheer from the main stage mic ‘Shhhh people are sleeping’, it’s Thom Yorke (AKA best hangover cure in the world). His set is mesmerising, inspiring and genius (just like him). Luckily for me the big screens weren’t on so I could lie down in the sun, close my eyes, and take in the music without getting distracted by people watching or lazy eyes. Between debuting ‘The Present Tense’ (it’s a new song so you know, go for a piss.’), playing some acoustic Radiohead and some tracks from The Eraser, Yorke bantered with the crowd and was (perhaps unusually) pretty damn hilarious.
I always find that the choice for the Uncut Arena (which is in a large tent) unusual. Last year Blondie, this year Bat For Lashes / Spiritualized / Gossip (purely coincidence as they are all Chrysalis artists ;)) I feel they could all take on a bigger crowd on the main stage. Also being a short-ass like myself and having no big screens in there I didn’t manage to actually ‘see’ any of these artists – only hear them. However, the sound is good, the arena has a fun atmosphere and, of course, it’s dry.
White Lies played to an enormous crowd which was a joy to see since I think I was the only one singing along last year. They played an epic set and looked like true professionals throwing in an effotless Portishead cover for good measure. Sadly Spiritualized and Grace Jones were on at the same time though both did bring in impressive sized crowds. I opted for two tracks of Jones (fabulous outfits as expected) and watched most of Pierce, whose live voice is sensational.
It was a great disappointment that I missed out on many bands that I would have loved to have seen – not due to being stuck behind a stag do in fancy dress at the bar or psyching myself up for the long drop.. but because the programmes were an incredible £8! To be fair it is a thick book with details about every performer but who wants to carry that round with them..?
Other highlights:
– The Irrepressibles (Lake Stage). Stunning strings accompanied by a Baroque styled Anthony Hegarty sound-a-like singer.
– !!!Chk Chk Chk (Sunrise Arena). One of the best festival bands because of their insane energy and likeability of front man Nic Offer.
– Cool (for) cats Squeeze
– Human Sheep
I could go on, but I won’t.
We are bouncing around the office in excitement because BAT FOR LASHES and THE HORRORS have, this morning, been shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize for their respective albums ‘Two Suns’ (Parlophone) and ‘Primary Colours’ (XL). Congratulations to both! This is supremely excellently wondrous and we are thrilled. Click here to find out more on the Mercurys website. Woop Woop! (..WOOP!!)
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Bat For Lashes, Bon Iver, damon albarn, Fleet Foxes, roots manuva, The Horrors, the shortwave set, White Lies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Glastonbury, glastonbury, glastonbury… they say if you remember Glastonbury then you weren’t really there (man). Well I could tell you that I spent my weekend expanding my mind, strolling naked through the Shangri-La compound (yes, that was ME) smoking nettles and discussing the positioning of ley lines behind a king size beard.. BUT! that would all be far too untruthful, because there was more music than you could shake a druid’s staff at to check out. For those uninitiated in the ways of Glastonbury it must be said that the sheer enormity of the festival means that attempting to catch even half of what is going on is impossible. The result is a weekend of very well thought out compromises. Here were a few of mine (click on artist names to see video highlights):
The Horrors // Park Stage // Friday 9.25pm – Perhaps I am biased since I think that the bass line on mirror’s image is the greatest thing under the sun.. but! – the Horrors show did not fail to deliver. As desperate fans ran uphill to the stage, the Horrors tore through their set (drawn exclusively from ‘Primary Colours’). Epic, dark, melodic, squealing deliciousness. First memorable moment of the weekend.
White Lies // The Other Stage // Friday 5pm – Dancing in the dark!! Dancing in the dark!! It seems whatever WL turn their hands to they pull off with finesse. HUGE crowd gathered to watch them kick off their two glasto performances and they were great.
The Big Pink // John Peel Stage // Sat 1pm – The huge John Peel tent was near capacity as crowds gathered to see tastemaker Alex Petridis’s ‘hot tip’ for the festival. Turned up to 11, big choruses, brooding bad ass basslines, crowd hungover but lapping it up. Big screams for ‘Velvet’ and ‘Dominoes’. A very nice glasto debut.
Fleet Foxes // Pyramid Stage // Saturday 4.30pm – Robin Pecknold singing ‘Oliver James’ with the same poise you’d expect from a man facing a bedroom mirror, let alone a 50,000-strong crowd, was a bit of a moment. Sunshine, Fleet Foxes in welly boots, harmonies harmonies harmonies, ‘blue ridge mountains’. I may have shed a tear.
Bon Iver // Park Stage // Sat headline slot – The Park stage is up on the hillside across from the stone circle and looks down over the whole festival. On Saturday night Bon Iver took to the stage and gave a truly magical set. ‘What might have been lost’ echoed through the crowd on ‘Wolves’, as Chinese lanterns floated idly into the night sky. You get the picture. Wouldn’t have missed it for the Boss.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs // Other Stage // Sunday 5.30pm – Head dress. Leather Jacket. Microphone Swallowing. Need I say any more? ‘Heads Will Roll’ made me want to abandon all my morals.
Bat For Lashes // The Other Stage // Sunday 6.30pm – I never quite get over how stunning Natasha Khan’s live performances are. Her voice is breathtaking. The band sounded louder and clearer than everyone else on the other stage on Sunday. This was definitely one of my highlights of the weekend. Spine tingling stuff.
And finally…
Blur // Pyramid Stage // Sunday Headline – Up there with Radiohead on the pyramid stage in 2003. Mind blowing. The Universal. The Universal. The Universal. Our very own Damon Albarn. Can’t wait to see them again on Friday.
Other scores of the weekend:
Crosby Stills and Nash (David Crosby’s moustache is amazing) // Dizzee Rascal// The Futureheads (secret gig on the cabaret stage. So good) // Falafel // Regina Spektor (‘someone next door is f**king to one of my songs’. yes.) // Shangri-La madness // hot cider // ‘Anvil’ in the cinema tent // SPINAL TAP! // Dead Weather secret gig on Park Stage // Neil Young’s seventeen verses // losing friends on Friday and no mobile then bumping into them by chance among 170,000 people. Bit lucky. // Roots Manuva on Sunday // The Shortwave Set at the Queens Head. //
I am showered, de-suncreamed and de-bearded. Ready to do it all again next year.
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