The Intolerable Kidd

This kid is anything but intolerable really... he's doing fingerpicking on his guitar and wearing braces, he looks like a country boy from outerspace. He disappears into his own little world and recalls his stories for you to listen to. He doesn't talk much to the audience but that is nice because so many singer/songwriters seem to feel the need to be comedians as well as singers, but silence inbetween songs can be just as effective, if you have nothing to say then say nothing.

Go and see him playing if you want to be involved in his private world of story telling and acoustic guitar sounds... He's no James Blunt, thank god.

The Intolerable Kidd myspace

Bill Callahan - Smog

There is something untouchable about Smog (Bill Callahan), he started out recording his own music on low fi equipment and is known for his dead pan introverted style and lyrics. Here's a video:



Free Downloads of Bill Callahan here of course buy the album as well

Read an interview here

Lyrics to Bathysphere

When I was seven
I asked my mother
To trip me to the bay
And put me on a ship
And lower me down
Lower me out of here

Because when I was seven
I wanted to live in a bathysphere

Between coral
Silent eel
Silver swordfish
I cant really feel or dream down here

And if the water should cut my line
Set me free
And if the water should cut my line
Set me free, I don’t mind
Ill be the lost sailor, my home is the sea

When I was seven
My father said to me
but you cant swim
And I’ve never dreamed of the sea again

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

Whenever I hear someone come on stage with an American accent I feel slightly afraid for them as Britain has a reputation for being a hard place to gig, or the audiences are known for being hard to please. With Steve Malkmus this wasn't the case....I think he won the audience over with his style and sent most of them over the moon, many of them (like me) were probably were probably still there for a few days.

Free Steve Malkmus downloads here, if you like it buy the album

Most songs ended with what seemed like 5 minutes of jamming (good jamming), the music was intense and you didn't quite know where it was going to take you next.

They've obviously been in the music industry for a while and like Sonic Youth they are continuing to make good music for all the right reasons and have not let the success destroy or taint what they do, it's just good music.

I went to get a beer someway through the gig and was dying to get back in case I missed anything and almost kicked the woman who tried to stop me from getting past her to where my friends were. I've forgiven Dominique for accidentally throwing his beer at me (what a waste) it cooled me down and my mascara was waterproof...although it is better to drink your beer rather than throw it all over your friends and I'm sure it was true that it was knocked out of his hand because the crowd was getting overstimulated by the real emotional trash being played.

Stephen Malkmus is the ex member of Pavement the Jicks are his band I saw them play at Sheperds Bush Empire in June 2008. I was late for work the next day, it didn't really bother me, and I have 2 badges that I got from the merchandise table...

They were promoting their new album Real Emotional Trash which has a great album cover.. and the title pretty much sums up the sound.

Richard Swift

The man gets on stage by himself and takes up the space with his presence, he walks over to the piano and sits down. Whatever he is doing looks natural in an odd kind of way, he sings with his eyes covered in a curly fringe. He's saying something like: "when he speaks a whole novel comes out of his mouth" I can't understand all the lyrics but I know that there's some pretty good poetry going on and it's not using all the usual cliches. It's him telling stories in an abstract imaginative way, kind of honest, he's not really a dreamer but his stories have a way of telling it how it is together with the powers of exageration.

Richard Swift let me borrow his amp that night because I was supporting him, which I do have to say was an honour. The artist who is represented by Secretly Canadian was doing a solo gig at the Enterprise, London January 2007, he usually plays with a band.

I've just checked his website and you can download some free tracks...

website

Godspeed You Black Emperor

I first heard Godspeed You Black Emperor while travelling on a train through Germany. One word I could use to describe them would be epic.. They seem to be letting the music spill out of them in a way that makes it sound as fresh as if they had just written it. I wasn't surprised to find out that there were 9 members they even had 20 members at some point. The songs are really long, maybe about 29 minutes for some. They start of somewhere, take you up to the edge, drop you off and then carry you back up again. The music which is all instrumental is kind of melancholic and reminds me of a darker version of Explosions in the Sky. They are anti-mainstream/corporate and don't do interviews and hardly anything is known about them personally. Unfortunately they are no longer together so there's no way to see them live but one of the members is now doing a project called Fly Pan am.
They probably are about as close as you get to real music.

Free downloads here

http://www.last.fm/music/Godspeed+You!+Black+Emperor
http://www.last.fm/music/Fly+Pan+Am
http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/

Just A Minute - one minute songs 7"

From Filthy Little Angels bands including Listen Lisse
This is now available for pre-order and is a limited edition so pre-order it before it sells out!!
Believe me it's good because I've heard it, so get buying if you'd like to add it to your lovely collection..

Get your hands on this special 7" called Filthy 15 - Just A Minute

Parkbench

Parkbench has released an album Versus Blackout with Spitz records. My favourite song is Pity is a Kick second only to Cheer up and Die and This Funeral is no Fun, real themes always have a kind of in your face appeal which I like. The cover features the familiar road in Dalson - Ridley Road market.

The music is acoustic, blues and it has a warmth about it, one for those late nights alone with a bottle of scotch writing poetry while the rest of the world sleeps ready for work the next day.

Tessellators

They used to be the Hundred Handed and now they have evolved into the Tessellators they are unique and it's all good. You can buy an EP with cool artwork.



Also check out Hundred Handed also where you can hear Listen Lisse doing some backing vocals on Ask A Stupid Question

Rosa Alchemica

Boys playing guitars, what more could you want!
I'm probably biased but this is a band worth seeing a few times over, in fact over and over again till you know all the words and realise you even wrote some of them yourself. You find yourself referencing the bands you know and the words get kind of reinterpreted, reused, sold and even bargained for. In the end you get some lyrics everyone is happy with. They should call themselves the editors because the songs have seen a lot of changes, maybe they are just always evolving or maybe it is the striving for perfection that keeps them changing. In any case it feels like it's going somewhere other than the rubbish heap. Their first album will be ready soon and it might even find it's way into people's CD players and itunes.
www.myspace.com/rosaalchemica

Velofax

These guys rock the planet and take control of a seemingly out of control electrical current which comes straight out of a universe that was just next door to us all this time we just didn't see it, but somehow they've charged the current into their fingers and on to the fretboards of their guitars then into the wires of the guitar amps out into soundwaves and then straight into your small little tiny brain.

It's all mayhem and it makes people lose control of their bodies and drop the contents of their pockets all over the floor because they tried to crowd surf into the walls but realised it was the ceiling.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to find themselves uncontrollably cheering, shouting, bouncing at the end of every song.

Download free tracks here..

myspace page

Giant Paw

I saw Giant Paw and thought it was great stuff. They're crazy cats, and great live so get down to see them...

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

If you haven't seen this documentary you should. It's everything a good documentary should be: compiling the music, drawings and films of this artist and footage of Daniel when he was younger and interviews with his friends and family. It's all done in a really good way which makes the film art in itself.



Some free downoads here listen, try, buy

Shannon Wright - Let in the Light

ooooh it's nice when an artist who usually writes very pained music (which I like) makes an album that is as challenging but in a less darker way. Shannon Wright has done this with her album "Let in the Light" it's melodies and subtle musical genius has let itself out in this album which actually makes you feel good about playing it again and again.

Nice one.