New Girls – ‘Honey Bunny’

Some more jangly, 50s styled, Buddy Holly meets Costello guitar-pop from Christopher Owens and co live from New Orleans.

MP3: Girls – Hellhole Ratface

Glastonbury headliners confirmed?

The rumours of Muse and Stevie Wonder to be added as headliners alongside U2 seem to have been all but confirmed.

U2 are definitely the kind of band I wouldn’t say I like, but would be more than happy to see if they were just there to be seen. Muse I really have grown tired of, as I’ve explained many a time before, but are undeniably a great spectacle band for a festival. If there’s not a suitable alternative like Animal Collective during Neil Young last year, I’ll probably be content to observe their performance. Just feels a bit too soon to be inviting them back, Radiohead declined a slot recently on ‘environmental’ grounds and the fact they’d played in 1997 and 2003 – would be nice for Muse to show a similar reserve, especially in a year where they’re playing Wembley Stadium again.

But the biggest news for me has to be Stevie Wonder. It’s a choice that feels very oddball for a festival that can be unbearably white at times, but the more you think about it, the more it just makes sense for Sunday night. He’s got the hits, he’s got that feel-good vibe in his music. It’ll be a wonderful way to end the weekend. Great news, hopefully he’ll get confirmed.

MP3: Stevie Wonder – Superstition
MP3: Muse – Knights of Cydonia (Live @ Wembley Stadium ‘08)

St Vincent covers ‘Mistaken for Strangers’ at Brooklyn Vegan Haiti benefit

More proof, if any were needed, that St Vincent is pretty awesome.

MP3: The National – Mistaken for Strangers

This Unfolds

From the hypnotically good There Is Love in You by Four Tet.

MP3: This Unfolds – Four Tet

Misspeak Music’s (once again quite late) Top 10 albums of 2009

I don’t know about you guys, but for me there’s no better time of the year than late January to sit back, contemplate and assess the year that just ended four weeks ago. January isn’t a time for new beginnings, it’s a time to look back and reflect before the year starts proper.

With that creed in mind, here’s some of my favourite albums of last year.

10. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Phoenix have been around for quite a while apparently; this is the first album I’ve heard of them. As it’s their… fourth studio album and their… fourteen year together as a band, I’m not sure why this album sounds as vital, fresh and adolescent as it does. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is the kind of album that gets made by scrappy teenagers straight out of the blocks, full of ideas, full of drive; bands of Phoenix’s age are usually steadily marching into their grave or trying to experiment their way through mid-career identity crises with varying levels of success; this album is pure, concentrated pop with not an ounce of fat on it. Sure, there’s ‘Love Like A Sunset’ parts I and II, an initially beguiling, mostly instrumental suite that would appear more like a rehearsal room jam if it weren’t so immaculately structured, mechanically driving to a crescendo and plateauing in the songs blissful ’sun-set’ – but it’s forgiven for how breathtaking it is; it also serves as a handy palate cleaner, a brief respite preparing you for another twenty minutes of synth-rock pop perfection.

MP3: Rome – Phoenix

9. The Horrors – Primary Colours

This album really shouldn’t be this good. I know the NME heralded it their album of the year, but no one takes them seriously anymore. This was a genuine surprise to me. When I was a young music snob critic, The Horrors were one of those bands who I took much pleasure in ripping into, partially because of the lo-fi ‘amateurishness’ (I was in the depths of my Pink Floyd obsession) of their music, partially because of the prefabricated, Hammer-Horror costumes, partially because of the faux-rebellious nature of their ‘riotous’ and ‘anti-establishment’ shows, and, perhaps mostly because of their rabid backing by the NME, who always seemed to be present at these riotous and anti-establishment shows. They were a joke.

But I’m man enough now to admit that this sophomore effort is more than good enough to take 10th place in my end of year list. I’m sure they’ll be overwhelmed by the news. I was initially won over by the sprawling Krautrock of Sea Within a Sea, but, convinced it was a flukey success in genre tourism by a band who had grown tired of aping The Cramps and had just received a Can record as a Christmas gift, I left the rest of the album largely unlistened to.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I properly gave it a chance, sure – Krautrock stylings aside – the album as a whole can be criticised as a Shoegaze genre exercise in the same way the original was with theatrical punk; the band copying My Bloody Valentine in the same way they used to Birthday Party, but it does it very, very well. And, perhaps more importantly, it does it earnestly and respectfully. A surprising record.

MP3: The Horrors – Mirror’s Image

8. The xx – xx

I missed this band at Reading for Lethal Bizzle. I’m not sure how I allowed this to happen. In my defence, their down-tempo, minimal tones aren’t exactly afternoon festival fare; it’s more the soundtrack of the nightbus home, coming down from the highs of the night before, bleary eyed and tired. But still, Lethal Bizzle. I made a mistake there.

I once heard this album described as ‘the kind of music you listen to when you don’t know what you want to listen to’. That sort of description probably paints a more negative image of the band that it intends, but it rings completely true. Like another album on this list, it’s a record that is perfectly summarised by its album art; is it a white cross on a black background, or a cross shaped whole filled by a white background? The music is a blank canvas, a Rorschach ink splatter; there’s reams and reams of notes that aren’t being played, a universe of silent space between the meticulously trimmed guitar notes, a multitude of contradictory feelings and thoughts drawn from the same muted, reflective vocals. Sex (and ‘love’) is clearly the topic of conversation here, but these aren’t smushy love songs, declarations of love or anything typical like that. It’s more basic, raw, and universal than that, or at least I think it is. It’s music that succeeds by giving away as little as possible. It’s what you want it to be. A daring burlesque striptease rather than a cheap lapdance.

MP3: Shelter – The xx

7. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

It’s a bit busy. It’s a bit much at times. It’s the sort of album you’d like if you’re the kind of person who has to have all the toppings on their pizza. Dave Longstreth would have probably been that annoying kid who was a straight A student and also the star striker of the school’s football team; he’s that unbearably talented polymath that everyone hates.

Prog-pop seems like a contradictory genre name, but it’s really one of the only ways to describe what’s going on here. Its baffling contradiction also goes some way to describing the creative mess that is Bitte Orca. And I mean that in the most sincere and complimentary way.

This rewarding, exhilarating effects of this awkward synergy are best exampled in the soaring ‘Stillness Is The Move’ in which bassist Angel Deradoorian’s vocals are transformed into those of your every-day R&B superstar. There’s the typical octave tourism, the indulgent trills and wordless crooning usually associated with the Leona Carey and Mariah Lewis’s of the world. But here, unlike most of those try hards on X-Factor, the acrobatics really do work in expressing the sentiment of the song: the fear of settling down and a relationship stagnating. Combined with a crisp, mid-tempo drum beat and the skittish, West-African influenced guitar lines that interlace throughout the song, it somehow works and sounds like a thoroughly forward looking record that balances ably between the often alienating complexity and general indulgence of prog, and the stale derivative nature of ‘pop’ music. And, for the most part, so does most of the album.

MP3: Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors

6. Mastodon – Crack the Skye

A concept album about – and I quote:

‘… a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin’s body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin’s body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it’s too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way.’

And it’s actually still really good.

MP3: Oblivion – Mastodon

5. Dan Deacon – Bromst

Oddball, nutty professor-type, acid-trip, psychedelic electronica. There, I gave a succinct description of this guy’s music my best shot. Even before the epic and terrifying 11-minute music videos for 5 minute songs and the wonderful, drama-workshop-cum-rave live show, the music of Dan Deacon posed a pretty imposing problem for music writers. How exactly do you explain it? What is it?

It could be part of what makes his music so appealing; the completely overwhelming nature of it all. Regardless, Bromst is a warm and euphoric album full of genuine emotional sincerity that is wrapped up somewhere beneath the initially baffling layering of samples, chipmunk vocals, machine-gun piano runs and tribal drumbeats. Po-faced, acoustic guitar-wielding rock stars wish they could write a song with half the spine-chilling intensity of Snookered.

MP3: Snookered – Dan Deacon

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

With the connotations that are drawn to mind by the title, that iconic album art and the band’s already considerable reputation, you would be forgiven for expecting something a little grittier, a little messier than what we got.

It’s still thoroughly New York, of course, just a different kind. The sparkly new-wave that comprises most of the album is so far from where the band originated; it’s more dance-floor, more disco than sweaty moshpit or basement rock venue; more Blondie than Ramones, but it works. It’s Blitz! isn’t a disappointing album, far from it; it’s easily the best they’ve ever done.

MP3: Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

3. St Vincent – Actor

Look at the album art for a moment (you probably were already, but bare with me). What do you see? You probably see the lovely Annie Clark standing infront of an stark, orange background; the Beyonce of the hipster universe. But examine that face a little more closely this time. Notice the slightly unheimliche, glazed over, plain look on her face? Unsettling, right? The album cover is the perfect representation, the perfect metaphor for the album itself. A sinister bent lies behind all of St Vincent’s softly crooned lyrics, those orchestral, filmic strings are very Disney, but it’s a Sleeping Beauty or Wizard of Oz sort of technicolor rather than The Little Mermaid. There’s a barely concealed element of violence, deviancy and darkness not far beneath the surface. On the cover of her debut, Marry Me, she just looks pretty. She still looks rather inviting here, but so do poisoned apples.

MP3: Black Rainbow – St Vincent

2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

And the winners of 2009’s best Beach Boys tribute band are…

A little unfair, but I did describe album highlight Two Weeks as one of the ‘most morish slices of bittersweet baroque pop since The Beach Boys‘ and it’s a observation that still holds true of the track and the album as a whole, even in the deepest depths of Winter those melodies are so rich, warm and stirring.

‘Veckatimest is an album that begs to be listened to whole, and not because the album has been constructed with segues that link the songs together, but because it largely shares the shame lyrical themes, moods and is painstakingly crafted to be listened to as a single movement. The album is relentlessly written in the minor key, it is mid-tempo and it’s all rather stately chamber-pop. Acoustic guitars intertwine with their electric cousins who are distorted just enough to shimmer on top of the warm fuzz of the bass guitar creating a hazy, autumnal swirl… ‘

And Jay-Z likes them, too.

MP3: Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

Ok. So this isn’t really a surprise. Even if I’d done this list in the middle of Summer it wouldn’t have been. If I’d declared it on the day of the album’s release, you’d probably shrug your shoulders, arch your eyebrows and nod acceptingly; it’s just that good. I’d only passing heard of the Baltimore band before this album, now they’re comfortably established as one of my favourites. A wealth of more erudite and lucid prose has been written in tribute to this album, so I don’t really know where to start or to begin. So perhaps I won’t.

MP3: My Girls – Animal Collective

The death of Spontaneity, or, a Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig review

Seeing any band for the third time in the space of six months is a little over-kill, but it provides an interesting test of their live credentials and blows open wide the internal workings of that live show. Tonight was the third time I had stumbled across the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the second half of the year. I was right at the barricades at Glastonbury; a little more disinterested, a few feet back waiting for Radiohead at Reading and tonight I was perhaps a little closer to the rear, reluctant to enjoy the growingly over-familiar intricacies of the 2009 YYY tour, but the tickets were already paid for and it was an excuse to get out of the house.

There are, of course, worse live performers out there than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to see so many times in close proximity. They put on a great show in Brixton, the same great show they put on in August and in June – give or take a few inflatable eyes, glitter and some 12ft or so ‘Y’s which descend from the rafters, rather wastefully, for one song. These differences are, obviously, more down to the constraints of a festival show, rather than the YYYs spicing it up a bit in the tail-end of their tour. Even – perhaps most surprisingly of all – Karen O’s outfits are recycled; there’s the playschool Apache headdress, the Poncho/Kimono hybrid, and the ‘KO’ studded leather jacket (a little more forgivable given its prominence in the Zero video and the band’s album aesthetic). My slightly irrelevant – and somewhat worrying – considerations of the band’s set design and Karen O’s sartorial choices aside, there’s a more disappointing replication of the set-list and the actual performance.

In an age of camera phones, Youtube and heighted interest in live music there’s always the risk of, or perhaps more stiflingly, the fear of short changing your fans. Fans can, and do, check your performance in Berlin in anticipation of your arrival in London; fans can, and will, check your performance in New York once you’ve left. In one sense, this means a greater standard of performance is delivered as a result of the complications of failure being so huge. The Morrissey no-shows and the Wavves meltdown are but two examples of artists not fully comprehending the need to be on your game when the eyes of the world are watching through that guy’s iPhone in the third-row. This higher standard of ‘professionalism’ in the live arena is one of the apparent bonuses of the wonderful world of shared experiences and interconnectivity. The other side of it is the stifling standardisation of performance that stems from this Youtube-induced self-awareness. Play a special cover one night and the people coming the following night will be disappointed if they don’t get something similar, if not the same. This results in ‘mono-performance’, a situation where a band finds itself trapped by this fear – or perhaps they’re just too awful – and they churn out the same thing night after night. In the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s case there’s Karen O going to the barrier and allowing the tone-deaf to sing along to Cheated Hearts, her holding the mic in her mouth and growling gutturally , the release of inflatable eyes into the crowd, and dedications to the band’s and the audience’s loved ones before the tame acoustic version of Maps. Sound familiar?

This isn’t a criticism of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in particular; I’ve had a great time every time I’ve seen them this year and there are enough other variables to provide a different mood to each show. It is a problem, though, and it’s one that plagues countless other bands. Muse are another example par excellence of this performing rigour mortis. Yes, the size and grandeur of their stadium-busting live tours means there needs to be an element of uniformity, but listen, there’s the same ‘improvs’ at the end of certain songs, so much so that their infamously rabid fanbase has names for many of them; they’ve been around for years; this, Matt Bellamy’s complete void of any charm or personality and the sameness of their playlists makes for a set of performances that can feel very, very similar.

It’s not that this repetition is unenjoyable exactly, but it does take away from that cherished feeling of uniqueness that is the reason for the live show. It’s the insincerity of the act that confuses the most. When I see the lead singer to go to the barrier, crowd-surf, try to swallow the mic or indulge in crowd banter, I want it to be just for me, or, rather, us. It should be exciting, genuine, unplanned. I want it to be because they felt like it. It should be spontaneous, desired from the heart. There’s just something rather sinister and disconcerting in imaging the image of Karen taking that mic into her mouth and growling every night of the YYYs tour dozens and dozens of times, over and over again.

MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trax Remix)

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Broken Biscuits – Part 1#

Writing a blog means you get a disproportionate amount of emails giving away free music, some good, some bad, some presented behind an impenetrable wall of PR guff, some with no explanation or justification at all as to why I should listen to them. It’s not unwelcome of course, but I rarely get the chance to post a fraction of the music I receive. Sometimes that’s because most of the music isn’t very good, but more often than not it’s because I haven’t the time.

So, that’s where Broken Biscuits comes in. Basically I’ll be hoovering up all the spare crumbs at the bottom of biscuit (or cookie) jar and throwing them into one nutritious post. Some of the bits are more morish than others, but from week to week (or however regularly I can/decide to do this) you should get at least get one new track from a new artist that you quite enjoy.

Let’s get things under way.

1. You’ve Got The Love – Florence and the Machine (XX remix)

The original is an unarguable classic, the Florence and the Machine cover – not so much. However, this goes some way to repairing that damage. Not strictly a remix, nor a complete reworking, it subtlety adds to the cover’s mood with some menacing sub-bass, laid-back, half-mumbled vocals that act as the perfect counter-point to Florence’s powerful which is cut-up and ‘glitched’ across the song’s understated climax. I never noticed how much the harps sound like the opening to Muse’s Bliss, either. A great track.

2. On My Way – The Sweet Serenades

Nervy, full throttle Swedish Power-pop. Your first thoughts probably immediately gravitate towards The Hives, and, to be honest, you’re not far off. Thundering drums, needly and nervy guitar lines perfect for the dancefloor and largely nonsensical and often wordless lyrics made for rhyme rather than reason. It probably won’t be your favourite song of the year, you probably won’t even remember it by the end of the year, but it’s a fun ride whilst it lasts.

3. Swimming – Mystery of Two
4. Repeat It
5. French Rocking Horse

Much more muscular rock this time. It’s still very much on the Indie side of the rock devide, but there’s some nice instrumental breaks and distorted guitar here. The singer seems to be trying to do his best David Byrne impression at times. Swimming is probably the pick of the three tracks.

6. Pirates – Penfold Gate

A four-peice Indie band from the Midlands with distinct storytelling lyrics. You’re probably thinking of The Arctic Monkeys, and, to be fair, you’re not far off. Only in this case the lyrics are no where as sharp and there’s a little less of that glorious instrumental interplay that marks the Arctic Monkeys out from being just another indie band. This track shows potential, though

7. New Wife, New Life – Truman Peyote

Frolicking afro-pop Foals/Vamp Weekend esque reverb drenched guitars, vocal harmonies, indistinct electronic rumblings and a recording of children playing. Quite Animal Collective. Great band name, too.

8. Passion III – Crash Overdrive
9. Hips, Lips and Microchips

Justicey, Daft Punkish Electro-House. You know the drill.

10. Santa Ana – Pi
11. New Shoes

Pi is a really awful artist name to have; in the sense that it sounds like pie, which is silly, that any search for said name is never going to result in the artist being the no.1 result until they’ve made it ridiculously big, ridiculously big enough to be bigger than a mathematical constant used to understand the fundamentals of the universe itself.

Anyway, Pi (eurgh) is some nice acoustic strummyness. Not really my cup of tea if I’m honest, but if you like sightly flowery singer-songwriterness, this could be for you.

MP3: Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the Love (XX remix)
MP3: The Sweet Serenades – On My Way
RAR: Broken Biscuits Mix 07.10.09

Vampire Weekend – Horchata

Sorry for the lack of updates on the site in the past few days; I think I might have to treat myself to weekends off now I’m back at uni – too much reading and work to do that doesn’t involve scouring my inbox for new tracks or keeping abreast of the latest news in the pop world.

Anyway, I think it was a couple of weeks back that I commented on the upcoming release of Contra, Vampire Weekend’s sophomore effort. Back then I had to make do with a lossy live recording of an appearance on Jimmy Fallon or something or other. Now we have an actual studio track kindly given to us by the band themselves on that rather picturesque teaser site.

Horchata is a slightly strange and awkward affair, but in a good way, I think. It’s the only way you can really describe a song that opens with a couplet like ‘In December drinking Horchata/ I look psychotic in a balaclava’ yet retains the simplistic pop vibes of the original album without sounding all together the same.

The afropop influences are a little watered down, instead of tight, funky guitar lines we get soaring vocals, tinkling glockenspiel, the lush, stately orchestration of M79, and stuttering drums; it’s pretty much the aural equivalent of (what I presume is) that Pacific skyline. The slightly clunky opening lines might not have the same singalongability of tracks like Oxford Comma or One (Blake’s Got a New Face) but it’s a promising opening and shows the band retaining elements of their trademark sound but not being afraid to push it forward a little.

MP3: Vampire – Horchata
Websitehttp://www.vampireweekend.com/

Grizzly Bear & Victoria LeGrand unveil Twilight track ‘Slow Life’

Infront of a particularly loud and obnoxious audience, no less.

MP3: Beach House – Gila
MP3: Grizzly Bear – Knife