This summer has been awfully quiet on the music front, if it wasn’t for the Proms then there really wasn’t a lot going on.
Instead, here are two great musical film moments from the end of summer. First, the band The Clash at Demonhead (well really Metric but this is the version from the film) from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Though I’m not really a Metric fan, this songs makes me wish that I was still an indie disco dj, just to hear it loud in a dark room.
The other is a film featuring Chilly Gonzales, Tiga and Peaches. Called Ivory Towers, the film features Gonzales and Tiga as brothers, both rivals in chess and fighting over the same girl, Peaches. While the love triangle is a bit unconvincing, the film is full of great one liners and Tiga pretty much steals the show.
So, instead of writing about those shows attended so far this summer, a better way to sum up the music for this Summer so far is in writing about the songs that Last.fm says I have been listening to.
One thing that I’ve been struggling with over the last 12 months is in the search for new bands to listen to. The old avenues of mp3 blogs don’t seem to be as great as they were during the heydays a few years ago and it takes a lot of time and effort to sift through them all to find the great songs. Meanwhile, the recommendations coming from the radio and even online magazines aren’t that interesting, much of it surrounded by hype. With gigs getting more expensive, and the effort in travelling across London, sometimes it’s not worth heading out to see something that I know nothing about. However, when I do make the effort, I am reminded that it is worth just heading to the odd random show from time to time.
One such example was the Parenthetical Girls and Former Ghosts show at the Luminare in June. Before heading to the gig, I knew almost nothing about the acts and was rewarded by one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen this year (that even includes going to see Flight of the Conchords). Whilst Parenthetical Girls were perfectly entertaining, it is the Former Ghost album that I find myself listening to every week since that gig. There’s emotion and intensity that you don’t normally experience in an album, and the live show was so emotional that at points it was quite difficult to watch. Nevertheless, even after that show I can’t wait till Former Ghost are over again later this year.
Sometimes it seems that Hugo Manuel can just sit there and write music at any moment. From back in Oxford watching his band the Modern, through Jonquil and now Chad Valley, there really hasn’t been a bad moment. With Jonquil changing their direction over the last year or so, it now seems that Chad Valley is the route for Hugo to write those songs if Jonquil kept going down their initial path. They are dreamy, layered and the perfect thing to listen to on warm sunny days.
Like the Former Ghost album, the most recent Owen Pallett album is another that just keeps pulling me back everytime. It’s one of those where I end up pressing ‘play’ again the instant the album reaches the end. This obsession is pretty bad, I should really stop soon. Or well hopefully stop by the time the next album is due.
The random appearance of a single TV on the Radio song from four years ago is all down to its appearance in Phonogram and making me wake up one morning just wanting to listen to this song on repeat. I listened to it for 3 or 4 times before getting on with anything else. Sadly there is no online link to show the context of the song in the comic, but I really recommend checking out Phonogram Singles Club if you have a chance.
The last time Owen Pallett played the Union Chapel eight months ago, it was pretty much the ideal gig in the perfect venue. At the time, I thought that the show really couldn’t get that much better. Owen Pallett has set the bar high, and somehow he continues to explore and reinterpret his music in new ways.
It wasn’t even that he made it easy for himself, asking Nico Muhly and Sam Amidon to play as last minute special guests. It was great to see Nico and Sam perform in this relaxed environment, after watching Nico Muhly’s programmed show last night at the Roundhouse with the Britten Sinfonia. Whereas last night, it was all about grand arrangements and drama, with just the two of them, it was much more playful. It was an extra treat to see Beth Orton guest with them again, and performing different songs to the night before.
Having Nico Muhly on before Owen Pallett was a great opportunity to compare the two. Having not really noticed it before until these two performance, there are so many similarities between their arrangements. Both are never happy with just writing quiet harmonies, instead opting to add little flourishes everywhere in their music. There’s no other way to say it, but both their music is just very pretty.
The last two times Owen Pallett performed alone (with a projectionist) with the focus entirely on him and his looping pedals. Before the show, I was a little uncertain how it would work with an additional musician. In fact, it was great to see that Owen could work off another musician, filling out the songs with percussion and whistling. Now, instead of just watching to see how he loops and cues up sections of his songs (which he still does) it’s also a chance to focus on his technique. Until tonight, I’ve never noticed how fast he plucked his violin.
It’s a shame that with the attention that signing to Domino and the release of Heartland that it is likely that Owen Pallett might never play somewhere like the Union Chapel again (the next show is going to be at Koko). There is something about that octagonal, domed room that really suits music like this.
Thinking very hard about what I’ve done this year, it’s hard to remember much that has really surprised me about music. Normally there would be at least one or two stand out new discoveries, but a quick trawl through recent memory only comes up with songs and music from bands that I already knew. In fact my ‘new’ discoveries of the year are acts which passed me by first time round. Not that this is a bad thing, considering that I saw some great shows, only at the bigger end of the scale rather than in a noisy tiny room.
On the very big end of the scale, Blur at Hyde Park was a fantastic communal experience, everyone singing along to every song. In hindsight, I am so glad that I made the last minute decision to get tickets, especially as it looks like that the reunion shows were really just a one off. As a warm up to that gig, the week before was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Although it was remarkable to see the Boss play for over 3 hours without stopping, it was a shame that much of it was the newer material. At least I can now say that I survived watching a set from the Dave Matthews Band.
At the other end of the scale, there was also the week where I saw two collaborations between a band and an orchestra,with Efterklang and the Britten Symphonia and Grizzly Bear and the London Symphony Orchestra (sad to have missed a third, the Stornoway show at the Sheldonian). With low expectations (not really knowing too much about the band beforehand) the Efterklang performance was fantastic, and with too great expectations, the Grizzly Bear collaboration turned out to be a little disappointing. However, having seen them another two great times this year (at Koko and at Pukkelpopp) I can’t really complain too much.
In a way this year was all about my continuing infatuation with all those great North American bands, which started back in 2007 with Beirut and Grizzly Bear. This year I saw both of them again (Beirut twice – at the Forum and also Pukkelpop), as well as possibly the two favourite shows of the year, Final Fantasy at the Union Chapel and Beach House’s tiny show at the Fleapit. With tickets for shows in the first quarter of 2010 for Final Fantasy (now Owen Pallett), Grizzly Bear and Beach House, this obsession is likely to follow on into next year.
Unsurprisingly, my favourite discovery of the year was the music of Bradford Cox, both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound. From first stumbling across their set at the Breeders ATP in May and then seeing them again at Pukkelpop, and hearing the Atlas Sound album in a record store whilst on holiday in Vancouver. The only puzzling thing was howcome it took so long for me to get round to listening to his music.
All in all, looking back at my gig calendar over the year, 2009 took some time to get going. While there are several remarkable shows to remember the year by, there probably weren’t as many as there used to be.
Thinking very hard about what I’ve done this year, it’s hard to remember much that has really surprised me about music. Normally there would be at least one or two stand out new discoveries, but a quick trawl through recent memory only comes up with songs and music from bands that I already knew. In fact my ‘new’ discoveries of the year are acts which passed me by first time round. Not that this is a bad thing, considering that I saw some great shows, only at the bigger end of the scale rather than in a noisy tiny room.
a band and an orchestra,with Efterklang and the Britten Symphonia and Grizzly Bear and the London Symphony Orchestra (sad to have missed a third, the Stornoway show at the Sheldonian). With low expectations (not really knowing too much about the band beforehand) the Efterklang performance was fantastic, and with too great expectations, the Grizzly Bear collaboration turned out to be a little disappointing. However, having seen them another two great times this year (at Koko and at Pukkelpopp) I can’t really complain too much.
Unsurprisingly, my favourite discovery of the year was the music of Bradford Cox, both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound. From first stumbling across their set at the Breeders ATP in May and then seeing them again at Pukkelpop, and hearing the Atlas Sound album in a record store whilst on holiday in Vancouver. The only puzzling thing was howcome it took so long for me to get round to listening to his music.