My Inland Empire

Well I'm sorry I've been a bit quite recently but I've been a bit tied up with sorting my new website out. I can at the moment tell you that in the foreseeable future our new home will be www.myinlandempire.co.uk but as you can see if you go there its not in proper working order, I'll be spending the next few days sorting it out and hopefully my next post will be on there.

edit;
arghhhh i had it up and nearly running, i then decided to upgrade the software and lost itall, back to the drawingboard for me then.

Any Feedback on the last two major albums I posted, Hood's album and Mark Hollis' album, Anyone think I was widely off the mark? Though they may not be everyones cup of tea they are two exceptional albums. Also I highly recommend that Smog 7", two amazing songs which need to be heard.



Battles - EP C/B EP

Battles' debut album "Mirrored" has been raved about by nearly every website and critic there is. It is my opinion and nearly everyone I know who loves Battles that this two EP's are definitely their best work. Their music is simply undefinable, completely unique, they take elements of their backgrounds in Prog/Maths Rock, mix it up with a bit of Krautrock, then add Electronic samples and top it off with avant-garde experimentalism. Blurring the distinction between the "Organic" and the "Electronic" a must have for lovers of Esoteric music and people with good taste.





Adem - Love and Other Planets

Some of you might remember Adem from a couple of posts ago where I posted his first album, the wonderful Homesongs. That album had a very organic and acoustic feel to it and was a deep personal affair. This one has developed upon it and has added more textural dimensions to it. It's turned into a well balanced affair of electronic and acoustic melding beautifully together alongside a huge bevy of unusal instruments. Fridge's, Adem is their bass player, influence can be seen in the empahsis on the percussive elements of his tracks. An album full of Sonic warmth and lyrical humanism.





Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful World

Beautifully strange music inspired by down to earth sounds and spacey experiemtalism. Much more focused than his previous albums, also much more collabrative, co-produced with Mercury Rev's  David Friedmann and with vocals from the Cardigan's Nina Persson and PJ Harvey. I can't say this is my favourite album by him as I love them all so much, but lets just say it's a wonderful album.





Summer at Shatter Creek - All the Answers

A re-up for someone. Etheral music, distinguished by a his high falsetto voice floating above warm beds of pianos, vibes, tambourines, vintage keyboards, and a slow elegant guitar. Lyrically and musically this is a really sad album, isolation a key factor.






Miles Davis - Water Babies

I just found this lying about in my sendspace folder so I'll put it up if anyones interested. Although not one of his essential albums it fills in some gaps during Davis's transitional period from adventurous acoustic playing to early electric performances.

Just a quick notice to y'all, that I've been sizeing up what to do next with My Little Inland Empire, hosted kindly by Livejournal, and I have decided with the good consultation from The Peanut that I should move to pastures new, i.e my own website. So everyone get ready to get out those pens and change your bookmark of this sad and decrepit place to the new and lively new place which will be up and running at a soon to be specified address in a TBA period of time, maybe a day or two, maybe a week, maybe never at all, but lets hope not the latter.


Now to the music.


Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis

I might say daily about loads of different albums "This is my favourite album" and I might well be correct in saying so, but when it comes to this album I just can't say it, It's on an other celestial plain of favourite albums and theres no way I can sully it with the first accolade. Mark Hollis is an album of unbelievably haunting beauty and starkness, a mixture of jazz, ambient and folk. Minimalist, quiet and intimate textures make this a utterly compelling and emotional album. Understated but also with a devastating use of atmosphere. A truely unique listening experience.

Nothing is more essential than this album





The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

On a slightly different tack this is an album full of luscious "techno" well technically a mixture of gauzy shoegaze, slippery ambient loops, and heavy bass drum. A fantastic electronic album from the master from Sweden.






Low - I Could Live In Hope

Low's first album from a prodigious oeuvre is an amazing debut. An Unclassifable band which make beautiful slow melodic tracks, patient and sparse made by the husband and wife team of  Sparhawk and Parker. Utterly Minimalist, Low truely behold the gift of understatement.

Highly Recommended






4hero - Play With The Changes

4hero are the forerunners of Broken Beat in the UK, producers and musicians they are the main driving forces behind the scene. This, their latest album, is drenched in Neo-Soul and Brokenbeat all done to a very high production level. While some say this isn't their best album, it's still a very good one and probably their most accessible to the curious.





Smog - Came Blue 7"

I have literally just heard this for the first time but I was so blown away by the simple beauty of these two tracks I just had to put this here straight away and not wait for another post. From the Red Apple Falls period and engineered and co-vocal-ed by Jim O'Rourke. A must have for Smog fans and anyone else for that matter.

I went round the Venice Biennale Arsenale section today for the second time, most of its complete tripe but I did like Yang Fudong's "The Seven Intellectuals In A Bamboo Forest". I would suggest watching all 2 hours of it if you get the chance.


Hood - Cold House

The Last in the series of "Albums I Love But Not Many People Have Downloaded So Why Don't You Give It A Try". Is Hood's Cold House. It is without doubt one of my favourite albums, a glorious mesh of glitchy electronica with space rock and experimentation  in huge amounts. Its cold, its delicate, its minimal, its desperate, its haunting, its everything you ever wanted.

Essential






Josephine Foster - Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You

Carrying on my present theme of Neo-Psychdelia and the New Weird America, here's an album I acquired on the recommendations of a regnyouth.com post a while ago. An album definitely for fans of Espers and Joanna Newsom, Foster gives us an amp-ed up and extremely inventive release the talented vocalist.






The Fiery Furnaces - EP

A B-sides collection of 40 minutes length which is stuffed full of great tracks, I didn't realise these b-sides into i read up about it. It could actually be classed as one of their best releases, full of pop and experimentation with indie/garage rock added in for fun. In all a really fun album and Highly Recommended.






The Rapture - Echoes

I had written a big review of this until I remembered the title track:

It has Cowbells

Essential

It's late and I'm about to get off but I got distracted by YouTube and Arrested Development clips and found my self to some Bjork Clips. The two videos were played without a break as her finale at Glastonbury Festival last June, I was near the front and watching this again i think i musicgasmed at around the 2 minute mark of Hyperballad (which went into Pluto). Just amazingness.

The indeterminable holiday of lounging by beach's, reading books, listening to music and eating good food is drawing to its halfway point. So I hope everyone else are cool and are having a good summer. Before I get to the albums I would like to point out to London-ers that from September to December there are so many good gigs coming up that I've had to be selective. Literally take your pick from Mice Parade, The Twilight Sad, Menomena, Joanna Newsom, Handsome Furs, Battles, Tunng, Stars, Mum, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, The National, Bat For Lashes, !!! and the list goes on and on, seriously go out buy tickets and support your favourite bands.



Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go

Will Oldham has always been a breathtaking songwriter with his surreal and fatalistic take on Americana. His latest album now adds wonderful arrangement of strings, drums and the like with beautiful harmonies. This truley perfects his style and is his best work to date, an absolute must listen.






Joanna Newsom - Walnut Whales

Next up is Joanna Newsom's super rare self-released EP. A ten track EP with unreleased tracks like Erin. Folk who loved the Milk-Eyed Mender from a couple of posts ago will love this. Another gem by Miss Newsom. Lucky old Bill Callahan.






The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I

One of the first "Indie" albums I listened too, solidly for a couple of months. A couple of years on I still go back and listen to it, and it still has the same fire it always did. A properly amazing Indie Rock band which shys completely away from conventional, no emo/scenester crap on here, cut up samples with jagged rhythms played by a band who knows what there doing. A masterpiece if your into this kind of stuff.






Gomez - Bring It On

Way back from the glorious days of the 90's come Gomez and Bring It On. This is bluesy roots rock from England, I think they even won the Mercury prize or maybe only just nominated back when it was good. The three strong vocalists are the main focal point of the band, all ranging in styles of pretty harmonies to gutsy blues. A thoroughly mature debut from a band, highly recommended.

Well my tried and tested of making something work, i.e just trying over and over again prevailed, sendspace is now working and three albums have arrived for you delectation.

Also another slight grumble, if you do take my links and put them on your blog would you mind linking back to me! Just I've noticed blogs with 100's of readers a day more than me stealing my links and using them without ever mentioning this place, just it takes a decent couple of hours to up and do my posts and it's slightly annoying when the big boys come along and steal your hard work.

Beach House - Beach House

This has to be of my favourite chilled out lo-fi band/album, its a blissfully hypnotic slow placed album. Where the two of them draw you into 9 songs of tightly woven organs, guitars and percussion with the vocals floating softly over the top. An exquisite album of mystical beauty. I love this album so much and can't recommend it enough.
Essential





Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly

Blonde Redhead's darkest and most delicate album to date shows the band moving away from no-wave and towards a more emotional style. The whole album, artwork included, gives off such a feeling of decadence past, filigree and shadow much a focus of the album. In places brooding, others overwrought, others deeply romantic. In all a wonderful album.
Extremely Recommended






Espers - II

My small ramblings won't give this album justice. To put it simple it's a sprawling epic of gloomy 17th century Elizabethan folk, walls of guitars, neo-psychedelia, jazz(?), rounded off with a bit of lovely post-apocalyptic folk and drone. So in all a lovely interested album that anyone who likes Six Organs Of Admittance, Donovan and Vetiver, i.e New Weird America.
Highly Recommended


Well enjoy...

I was going to do an update today but the last 24 hours I've been having problems with Sendspace, I can't open the site and Sendspace Wizard isn't logging in for me. So I'll keep on trying this evening and then if it isn't working I'll try something else tomorrow. So please bear with me, hell you could even help me look for a three person flat in London Zone 1 for under £350 a week, which is taking up most of my time at the moment.

Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light

These two new-age hippies make slow and languid music which meanders about your living room. A very calm and chilled affair in which the band try and escape from the modern urbanisation of today, they infact lived in tents in the californian desert for quite a while. Nice to listen too on a hot lazy summers day.





NOMO - New Tones

NOMO are an amazing band who fuse together Afrobeat, avantgarde jazz and funk and produce stunning tracks. Electronics and dub make appearances but the underlying driving force of their music is the rhythm. Superbly written, produced and stuffed full of willful but unpretentious exoctisim. Really "a must listen" if you like anything other than Indie Rock.

Essential





Out Hud - S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D

Out Hud are unique. They are an oddball disco post-punk instrumental indie dance outfit. The flowing album is packed full of pulsating grooves and webs of intricate adornments tangled up with psychedelic dance music. Yet again an essential listen. Also the bassist Nic Offer, the guitarist Tyler Pope and the sound engineering Justin van der Volgen are all in !!!, so good pedigree.

Essential


Any views on Annuals and The Twilight Sad, Hate? Dislike? Ok? Love? Voice your concerns.

It's coming round to that time of year when people start to get excited about the best british talent in this years music scene. Where supposedly the best music from our country is showcased and the best given a nice little prize, patted on the back and congratulated. Well this year the only album of any note in our fine and illustrious music scene is

  
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold

I mean looking at the other nominee's, (granted Fionn Reagen, Maps, and Basquiat Strings might all be ok but doesn't fit in with my little rant here), I'm surprised we aren't all strapped to NME's arse and constantly licking it. Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, The View, The Young Knives and fucking Jamie T. How those four last bands could be even thought of making music is beyond me let alone being the best albums in the past year. Disgusted. The Mercury awards have clearly lost their prestige, everyone always knows that half the entry's have payed redicoulous sums of money be inculded. In 2005 Hard-Fi and the Kaiser Chiefs were nominated, in 2004 Keane and Snow Patrol, yikes, you have to go all the way back to 2001 for the first decent nominee list, with Radiohead, Ed Harcourt, PJ Harvey, Elbow, Goldfrapp, Super Furry Animals and Zero 7 all in it. All these positively stampede over the bands being nominate this year and the last couple. And thats without even touching the amazing 90's nominations.
Well after the red mist has risen what I'm saying is, I don't like the corporate smuck of the awards now and go out and support Bat For Lashes.

Expect a proper Update later today.

Well I started off with three albums and it just grew throughout the day so here's six albums I think everyone should give a couple of spins too in the next couple of days.


Annuals - Be He Me

Yes I know this is a repost but I was shocked that only 52 people have downloaded this absolutely amazing album, it's a travesty! I woke up this morning and put on my Annuals t-shirt (my only band t-shirt) and listened to them on the boat to the beach, and just renewed my love of them. I've only seen them twice, Glasto and McCarren Pool NYC, and both times they were playing outdoors, but still they were electric, three drummers really add something to it, it's just a pity the drums aren't so prominent in the album. For a general description of Annuals, think Arcade Fire but better and spunkier, by the way I love Arcade Fire.
Extremely Recommended





Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender

If you've frequented certain music sites in the past year you wouldn't have missed the spectacular reviews for Joanna Newsom's Ys album. Well I think this album is so much better than Ys, Ys is good but M-EM is brilliant. Newsom is a classically trained harpist who mixes folk and bluegrass into indie rock, kind of. Its a wonderfully sweet and beautiful album, almost fairy-tale like. I'm seeing her at the Royal Albert Hall this September and really am so excited, last time she apparently played Ys through with an Orchestra and for the second half played with her band most of this album.
Essential






Devandra Banhart - Rejoicing in The Hands

New Weird America's figure head is Banhart, this prolific folkster makes off-track slightly loopy but unselfconscious poetic music. His tenor voice and edgy, angular guitar superbly portray Banharts imagination to the listener. An utterly hypnotic album which draws you in from start to finish.
Extremely Recommended





Four Tet - DJ-Kicks

This also got played on the way back from the beach and was a last minute up. Four Tet, Kieran Hebden, started out as a break from post-rock band Fridge, with Adem as well, and evolved into a highly respected DJ. In this album he mixes seamlessly Electronica, Syclops, into Soul, Curtis Mayfield, into Indie Pop, Sterolab, into Animal Collective into Hip-Hop, Group Home. It's an amazing album and definitely his best mix album and just shows how amazing and eclectic he is.
Essential





The World/Inferno Friendship Society - Red-Eyed Soul

With possibly one of the more unintelligible names for a band I've seen, this Cabaret art-punk collective have brought out their most accessible album with it's most danceable and pop-py tunes. Infectious and fun with the keyboardist from The Hold Steady among their ranks.






Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Boulevard de l'Independence

The self taught Kora Genius from Mali's latest album yet again showcases his amazing talent. An internationally respected artist who has played all over the world.

Yes, I've rather run out of steam now.

Crappy weather, went to the beach in the Sun, got there and came right back as the weather turned straight into the badassedest storm i've seen in a while. So from the eye of the storm I, today, present to you these four albums in a slightly different format than usual.



Sufjan Stevens - Michigan



Cornelius see's no difference between pop and the avantgarde, he mixes all styles together and comes up with amazing results. Sunny pop, noisey garage rock and kitsch are all thrown into together, then he adds his impressive song crafting a multi-layered production giving of a highly unpredictable but absolutely amazing album, highly recommended.





Mum - Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy

Iceland's pop experimentalists have brought out, yet again, a brilliant album. I was only aware of their low key electronic side before, from Yesterday was Dramatic - Today is Ok., but when I found this my eyes were opened to their newer sound. Awesome. I love it and you should all give it a go, before it gets taken down.





Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

I'm a huge fan of AC, they are such a great and innovative band, so i'm suitably excited about the new album coming up, hell i'm going to see them on their tour in Novemeber. Strawberry Jam could be seen as their easiest album to get into and then once you love them, pester me and i'm sure i can find all their links somewhere. Anyway a must listen album by a must listen band. And errr no it's not the right artwork.


Also someone asked for a re-up of a Polysics album, you'll find it there.

Firstly thanks to everyone for great response to my last post, I never expected to illict so many comments, it's great! Of course I never meant to sound a bit annoyed merely just try and get the blog a bit more lively, I don't really like all the blogs where there are hundreds of posts but no one ever says anything.

So after quickly relocating to Venice, Italy, I'm back up and running and will be working properly on the blog for the next month, expect updates every couple of days. I just thought if any of you are in unsigned bands and want a bit of coverage send me some tunes and if i get a good-ish response maybe i could do a post every week or so on your bands.

Today we have three albums and a repost. The repost is the amazing album by The Twilight Sad, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Summers, I orignally posted this as one of the bands I had seen at Pitchfork, I recently started to listen to it and haven't been able to stop, I've listened to it about 8 times in the last couple of days. Shimmering guitars, folky accodions, driving drums and a seriously scottish accented singer. Extremely recommend. Next is Smog's A River Ain't Too Much Love, this is a recent album by the king of acoustic lo-fi, its sparse and direct, sonically and personally. It's the album that kindled my growing love for Smog/Bill Callahan and if you want to listen to proper Singer/Songwriter download this album. Thirdly we have A Sunny Day In Glasgow, a band from Philadelphia who make synth-laden noise pop which is quite shoegazey, fronted by identical twin sisters and run by their brother, Scribble Mural Comic Journal is a very nice album and full of atmosphere. Finally finishing off today is My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything, in my opinion better than Loveless. I bought this on vinyl out at Pitchfork and thought everyone should have a listen to it, MBV redefined noise in music and pretty much invented Shoegaze/Noise-pop. Defintely a must listen for everyone.

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal







my bloody valentine - isn't anything



Also I thought I would post my upcoming gigs, which I'm getting more and more excited about. All in London of course.

                         13-09 The Twilight Sad supporting Mice Parade

Totally Fuzzy

i think this is a common problem with blogs, i've now had 6,544 downloads and averaging about 100 downloads a day now but i've had only about 45 comments from you guys and they are from pretty much the same group of people. i'm not really annoyed, i just think if people respond and comment on albums which i've put up and discuss with other viewers their thoughts about the albums, people will learn so much more about the music. you'll find new bands, you can tell everyone if you loved some band or if you hated another. recommend me stuff and i'll go listen to it. its an interactive process where if you give you'll get way much more in return. any thoughts?

being a wonderful tourist in new york i've just spent the last 24 hours reading the last harry potter and watching beckhams 10 minute limping debut for the galaxy. i'm off to one of the free pool parties in brooklyn soon, i think the line up is the oxford collapse, ok-ish, annuals, absolutely fantastic, and bands of horses, pretty darn good as well. anyway to todays music.

some might remember the excellent fridge album i put up a while ago, well they also do brilliant solo work, four tet is an amazing eclectic dj and the bass player adem has come out with two folkish albums. his debut homesongs is an ode to the lovelorn english troubadour inside him. he mesmerises with the recorded feeling of warmth in the album, truely spectacular. next up is shellac's excellent italian greyhound, now i bought the lp at pitchfork for it's amazing artwork but musically this could be the best album since their debut, it feels stronger and more intuitive than 1000 hurts. turn it up loud and listen of shellac of north america. next some regulars, if i've got any, might remember the hood album i put up earlier but it was incomplete, now the whole of cold house is up and i can truely say it is one of my favourite records. electronica mixed with space rock and experimentation gives of this feel of absolute despair, melancholy and isolation, but it's in no ways emo lets make that clear. really what puts it in the higher plane is the phenomenal pounding of the drums in a graceful battle of rhythm and atmosphere. finally broken social scene's debut album feel good lost is an abstract web of dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock, i really do recommend this.


adem - homesongs
domino. 2004. alternative folk






shellac - excellent italian greyhound
touch & go. 2007. shellac.






hood - cold house
domino. 2001. hood.






broken social scene - feel good lost
noise factory. 2001. experimental indie rock.

http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com/2007/05/totally-fuzzy-button.html

after my fun filled adventures of the day before i returned again at 1 to the mighty union park, chicago, which apparently is in illinois for all my fellow brits.

 kicking of the day was a supreme set of deerhunter psych, a deerhunter are a rather odd band fronted by an rather odd bradford cox, who today was in some victorian dress and had a cloth mobile attached to his fingers. this is hotly tipped experimental noise rock, they are striving for maturity, intellectualism, and structure but they get bogged down trying to be unconventional and pretending to be serious. its good stuff though, karen o has hyped them up, and grizzly bear like them as well, dan rossen and chris bear played on deerhunters last track strange lights.


deerhunter - cryptograms



then the pony's had their set on the other main stage, i, meanwhile, staked a place nearish the front for a band i really wanted to see menomena. they are yet again another product of the flourishing portland, oregano, scene which is emerging at the moment. they are a wonderful group of three multi-instrumentalists playing experimental rock, i just love the baritone sax. the tunes are solid and different, a definite recommendation from m.i.e towers.


menomena - friend and foe
pass - friend



so by now i'm getting pretty burnt, its sucks, it must be the scottish blood. but i soldier on and wait for the sea and cake to arrive. now i don't know much about their work i only heard their latest album, i think they're a prog-rock super group of sorts again, but the latest album "everybody" seems very mellow and almost pop-ish, a great album to listen to going to sleep, in fact i suppose you could call it a gorgeous album. and then when they brought out their classic tracks you could see they quite clearly knew how to rawk still.


the sea and cake - everybody
pass- nodatta.blogspot.com



then what followed one can only describe as a feast for the eyes, a magnificent spectacle, it was of montreal. kevin barnes, of montreal's genius, has had a torrid couple of years, i mean depression and alienation from his wife and new born child in norway in the winter can't be too great. anyway it caused him to think long and hard and make the album, "hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?". it is a work of excellence in indie disco/pop. lyrically, musically, and productionally it excels.  it's supremely dark in places but positively joyous in others, the centrepiece of "the past is a grotesque animal" is a 12 minute behemoth which absolutely draws you in completely. go buy this album and put it on loud on your headphones, then go out and forcibly make your friends buy it and listen to it loud on their headphones. anyway back to the set, there was everything, performance artist's cartwheeling round the stage, with a huge crab claw, a gold darth vader, a guitarist in a pink fluffy suit and silver wings, flags galore, red apple sauce, glitter, and barnes stripping down to some leather thong. i think i can say i haven't seen such an amazing set ever before.


of montreal - hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?



well after that i had the hard choice of de la soul and klaxons, i missed the new pornographers for reasons apparent in my glasto posts, well if you hadn't gathered i went to the klaxons, even if i don't really like them to much. i mean they aren't to bad but just a bit simple really. anyway after about 1 hour trying to sort out their sound they finally came out, and put on a pretty decent 45 min set on the tiny stage, they were in to it and the crowd were pretty amazing, so in all a nice little bit of pop to finish of the weekend and my stay in chicago.


klaxons - myths of the near future



well fini.

on a side note, i'm not really liking the layout and flexibilty of livejournal so when i return from new york i'll probably changing to blogspot.com. also if anyone's got any spare tickets for arcade fire at alexandra palace, any chance i could buy them?

also come back soon, i've got a huge backlog of great music which everyone must listen to soon!

so my second saturday of a festival ever, yup glastonbury was my first ever festival. i was bored at the hostel so went down to wait for the gates to open. of course good old yoko ono took ages on her sound check and then apparently asked for the whole placed to be hosed down so there wasn't much dust gusting about, which was very considerate of her for us but did mean we had to sit out side for an extra 45 minutes before they let us in. at this point i liked to say i met van from virgina, a really nice 50 year old asian dude, who was like a walking encyclopedia on indie bands, he's been to gigs every week for absolutely years, he said he remembered seeing slint when spiderland came out, so way back in '92. awesome guy who saved me a front row space for the twilight sad and gave me money to get me and him water. my only qualm with him was that he liked hard-fi, people who like hard-fi should be garroted slowly and painfully. simply.

so yeah, the twilight sad were my first band up on saturday. now i hadn't heard anything about them before i got to chicago, i had seen a write up on regnyouth.com that morning and then i talked to van and he raved on about them, so i thought i should definitely give them a go and the fact that they were from glasgow made it even more intriguing. i liked what i heard, of course i need to find/buy the album and give it a couple of listens before i really decide. anyway its wide expansive rock and accordions intermingled with scottish folk, the lead singer's accent is very strong. well worth a try.


the twilight sad - fourteen autumns & fifteen winters


califone next played a short set, i missed most of it and the bit i saw i was standing to said and wasn't really paying attention so i can't really tell you anything about them, but a link to their latest album could still be alive in a much earlier post by me. as soon as they finished and everything left to go watch voxtrot i scrambled in and thought my way to the front to wait for grizzly bear. i wasn't going to be anywhere apart from front row to see these boys. of course they're not exactly sunny festival material but if your not distracted you can swoon away under their hypnotic harmonies and crashing drums. i've seen them twice now in three months and both times what struck me the most was how prominent the drumming by chris bear were. live it really adds so much more to their already amazing tunes. after a couple of technical hitches with chris taylor's clarinet and electronics the whole set went smoothly, tunes were intertwined and everyone was happy.


grizzly bear - yellow house



then straight after the mighty grizzly's were battles. yet again the second time i heard them in the last three months, may was an amazing month for gig's in london, and yet again they blew me socks off. it may be maths/prog/post/fun rock, whatever you want to call it, but they are just there playing music that they hope people will like and dance. they may be a super-group but there is no pretentious posturing, these guys are just doing it for the fun of it, and it comes through live. live i've heard they can have some problems, like just finishing a gig when one of their electrics broke mid set, so there was a mild hiccup today but nothing serious and it all sounded great. highly recommended. also playing at koko, london, in october.


battles - mirrored



well those too kind of left me an exhausted wreck and none of the other bands really floated my boat. i was so annoyed beach house were on the same time as grizzly bear and fujiya & miyagi on the same time as battles, i rank them before nearly as highly as the bands i did go and see. anyway i stuck around for dan decon as i heard his shows a pretty funny and energetic. as clipse was playing on the main stages everyone had come along to small side stage to hear dan deacon, it was so packed you could hardly move, and everyone was literally been jammed up against the wall. then when people found dan deacon wasn't actually on the stage but just in front with the crowd everyone crammed forward. the set was great and he was funny and worked the crowd well. sadly the safety guys then deemed it was to crowded and turned down his music and kicked him off. kind of sucked.


dan deacon - spiderman of the rings



then i was tired so i went to sleep.

this year pitchfork decided to add on an extra day to their music festival, this was done in conjunction with all tomorrow's parties from the uk and their don't look back series of concerts. these are a concerts where really famous (slightly old) albums are played through in their entirety, one of the most famous being sonic youth playing daydream nation.

so last friday i had the pleasure of watching slint perform spiderland darkly and just as brooding as ever note for note, followed a couple hours later by sonic youth thrashing through daydream nation perfectly. slint's spiderland is one of the most essential and chilling albums of the progrock era, and a defintite must-have album for everyone. the slint dynamics of quiet-loud has seemingly influenced everyone in the genre. on friday they were playing at sunset so i heard lots of people grumbling that the atmosphere wasn't right for the album most people seemed to want it to be played in the pitch black. however if you immersed yourself in it you wouldn't have noticed you would just have been mesmerised by the performance of such a classic and influential album.


slint - spiderland

next up was gza from the wu-tang clan performing his album liquid swords. i have no time for hip-hop of this sort and thus took no notice.

the headliner of the night was the mighty sonic youth. daydream nation has been seen many as the epitome of post-punk art rock, it's just so amazing live is all i can say. the band must be all in their 50's but the energy the exude is amazing, they're like teenage bodies on really mature and experience heads. the album shows just how well they can incorporate noise and self-conscious avant art into rock. essential listening for all.


sonic youth - daydream nation

links to follow later, i'm in new york without my hard drive and finding it hard to find the slint links.