The Daily Growl

Cloud Control from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

Have you been on the Black Cab Sessions website lately? I drop by regularly and there’s always something brilliant going on. The latest session comes from Cloud Control - an Australian band I’d never heard of before - who bring handclaps and some lovely harmonies to a trip up Brick Lane. Turns out they’re playing for the self-same Black Cab Sessions at The Luminare tonight. I found out too late to be able to go, but if you’re reading this before 8pm today, maybe you can get down. It’s bound to be a good show.

mp3: Cloud Control - Gold Canary

Last year, Bear Driver did well for a band with only one single under their belts, playing both Reading and End of the Road festivals. I missed them at the latter of course, and as has been the case every year of the festival now, bands I missed have a habit of cropping up the next year and pleasantly surprising me. It’s hard not to like Bear Driver’s agreeable, tuneful indie pop. Turns out they’re pretty agreeable people too. To belatedly mark the release of their fine second single Wolves, I asked them my seven questions.

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The next installment in the ongoing adventures of Gruff Rhys. The last two years have seen him go from sports car-inspired electropop to huge psychedelic rock jams in his day job with Super Furry Animals and now back to teaming up with Brazillian eccentric Tony Da Gatorra playing huge psychedelic rock jams. Sort of. With added Gatorra. And I don’t mean just Tony himself, I mean the Gatorra instrument - part drum machine, part guitar - which he invented. See? It’s interesting already, and that’s even before you’ve heard the track.

The back story is intriuging too. Legend has it that Gruff, a huge Gatorra fan, tracked the man down in Brazil, a trip that was so much fun that they made a film about it. He found Tony of course and they recorded an album live in just over five hours. It’s great, but then it would be. Gruff rarely puts foot wrong. And Tony is the added bonus. The icing on the cake.

In A House With No Mirrors (You’ll Never Get Old) by TurnstileMusic

The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness will be released on 26th July. Buy from Turnstile Music.

The road movie Separado! is showing at selected cinemas around the country from 30 August. More details here.

Not Squares - Release the Bees from Bright Stem on Vimeo.

Here, Belfast’s premier synth destroyers return, having ditched their guitars, clutching a well-thumbed copy of Let’s Make it RAVE, and a cheap graphics package, and somehow contrive to make it awesome.

mp3: Not Squares - Bi Ki Na (Me Me Wee Wee WeeMix)

This review first appeared on Bearded Magazine.

Glasgow has long been celebrated for its independent music – plenty hot new bands, artists and scenes have come out of there in the past few decades, but you can be sure that no media flurry about music in that city will ever mention the name Richard Youngs.

There a few reasons for this. Despite being hugely prolific, Glasgow-dwelling Youngs is a reclusive sort; live appearances are rare and tours even rarer. Plus his wide ranging experimentation hardly has mass appeal. He’s one of these refreshing free spirits making music unbound by any commercial motives, happily releasing several sets of recordings each year, some of them on CDRs, others on small labels and a few on Jagjaguwar. It’s perhaps no surprise that no British label of any size has taken an interest in Youngs, but gratifying to see that an American record company have seen fit to release at least some of his output.

So I’d like to follow that by saying that this album is the one to introduce him to a wider audience. After all Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits is a bit of a change for Youngs – he’s made a pop album. And it’s not an obtuse or ironic album either – it’s a proper pop record, full of tunes, hooks, gorgeous harmonies and electronic beats. So much so that you’d wonder if Youngs has a secret love for the Pet Shop Boys.

Despite their lack of high-gloss sheen, this is a collection of songs that really will stick in your head. Sure, there are little intricacies and complexities creeping in, as you may expect, but this is mostly a straightforward album, inviting you to appreciate it on its own terms. In fact, Oh Reality, with its easy melody, propulsive rhythm and unexpectedly appropriate guitar solo, may be a candidate for one of the best pop songs of the year.

But it’s no crossover album. There’s no commercial bent behind it, merely the response to a friend’s challenge to ‘make a proper pop record’. Youngs has done that, but he’s primarily done if for himself. There’s no attempt to reach out to new audiences. The original release was a limited-run CDR which only a few hardy souls found. Even the higher profile Jagjaguwar release is vinyl only. Let’s hope there is a download release too, because given his talent, it would be a shame if Richard Youngs remained a prophet without honour in his own city and country.

mp3: Richard Youngs - Love in the Great Outdoors

Beyond the Valley of the Ultrahits is out next week on Jagjajuwar. Buy from Rough Trade.

Now here’s part 2 of Wet Paint Day here on The Daily Growl. There are no more tracks from the new album - just the same one but this time it’s been distributed across 33 blogs worldwide. It’s this month’s Music Alliance Pact of course, and along with bigging up Wet Paint internationally, here’s the usual global collection, Argentina to Venezuela.

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If, like me, you were one of the people who enjoyed the scuzzy, fuzzy slacker rock of It Rots, the debut album by East London band Wet Paint, then rejoice! They’ve recorded a new album which is out sometime soon. Not sure exactly when, but the main thing for now is that I’ve got a wee exclusive for you in the shape of a new track. The new record continues where the previous one left off, rattling along with plenty of good tunes, crunching riffs and ragged charm. Until it’s all revealed, you can content yourself with Dead Night. Wet Paint frontman Babak Ganjei was good enough to pass the album onto me, and to answer a few of my silly questions.

The second album means that Wet Paint is a proper going concern now - did it go so well with the first album that you thought it’s worth making another?

The first album was initially recorded in two days live - it was a means of documenting the songs we’d written  before we forgot them altogether. Each recording is a learning experience and it’s fun to learn, so I just booked the studio time so we had a deadline to work to, then we panicked, then we improvised. To be honest we didn’t think about the first album in relation to this, the good side of being a self sufficient band is that you’re not gonna get dropped if you haven’t sold much, and you can keep making records and working out what it is you do. In the not-so-distant past, bands seemed to have a lot longer life span and got to take a lot more chances. That’s why a band like the Flaming Lips can exist today doing what they do. They have a huge back catalogue and  it’s fun to hear a band evolving. Everyone these days seems to have a three album life span, I don’t like that very much. We had to make this one it’s a stepping stone to the fifth one, that’s the one to get your lighters out to.

My short answer was gonna be that it’s definitely a going concern on my bank balance. Also some blog gave the last one 0 out of 10, so the pressure this time was to better or at least equal that, and we relish a challenge.

How did the recording go?

I’ve been reading the Stool Pigeon’s compilation of  Son of Dave’s articles for their paper. It’s called ‘We Need You Lazzaro, You Lazy Greasy Bastard’ it’s really very good, and the first essay is about how there is nothing more boring than musicians talking about making music. It was a stirring argument, I feel like I have to watch myself here…

It went well we recorded with our friend Ash who produced and engineered and became like the fifth member and it was fun to have that influence.  Also we all record together live, none of that one by one going in stuff. So we are happy together and pissed off together. It keeps everyone in synch.

What can we expect from the new album?

Five top ten smash hits and five meandering wiggy noodle jams

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Yesterday, for propably the last time, I went down to Pure Groove in Smithfields. Since it opened there in 2008, I’ve been there many times – to buy records, to drink coffee and most of all for their excellent instore gigs. Their lunchtime shows have sustained me with live music when getting out to gigs in the evening have been difficult, so I’m gutted that they’re having to close their doors. It’s not that they’ve been unsuccessful; the problem is the age-old one of nimbyism.

Despite occupying their premises for two years and having live music for all that time, in the past few months there have been complaints about noise which resulted in the council recently putting a stop to live music in the shop. Since their business model relies on gigs and events to pull the crowds to their slightly out-of-the-way location, no live music means they’re a bit screwed. So it was little surprise to read the statement on their website on Monday saying that they were closing.

It’s sudden too. Saturday is the last proper day of business – although they’re open for their final defiant instore on Monday – and they’re having a stock clearance, so naturally I headed down to see what bargains could be found. It was a bittersweet experience. On the stage where I’ve seen so many great gigs, there were boxes of CDs, 12 inches and 7 inches, selling at giveaway prices. As I made my way through them, pulling out handfuls of records by bands I’ve heard of but never really checked out (Thomas Tantrum, A Grave With No Name, Gyratory System, others) and some I’ve never even heard of, it should have felt good, but it was a hollow victory. I may have left with 13 records and three CDs for four quid, but I also left with the realisation that I’ll never exchange money for good music there again.

But chin up! It’s not all over. The website will be relaunched and continue, and they’re looking for a new physical venue to open somewhere else next year. Good luck to them. I’m sure they’ll be checking who the neighbours are first.

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It’s always nice when people give me more than just song titles for Seven Songs. I appreciate everyone who does it of course, and I know artists are busy and all that. But extra effort is always pleasing. If I were to measure bands by this criteria, Wilder would be top of the charts. Three out of the Bristol-based four-piece took time to enthuse about various songs at some length for which I’m grateful. Maybe it gives a glimpse of the music that drives them. For instance, Listen to Girls vs. Boys and the words ‘Friendly’ and ‘Fires’ may cross your mind. But that’s OK, because the band are all big fans. What I’m really looking forward to is their cover of You Can Call Me Al.

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It’s been much publiclised lately that the songs on the Perfume Genius debut album Learning come from a dark place. And certainly, the simple beauty of these piano ballads is underscored by raw emotion and pain, but that’s what makes them so compelling and no doubt why the album has been so acclaimed. When I asked Mike Headreas my usual seven questions, I wondered what heart-wrenching songs he might suggest. Certainly songs by Karen Dalton and This Mortal Coil may not be a surprising, and the mention of Phosphorescent makes perfect sense because in places Learning, reminds me of Matthew Houck’s Pride. But there may be a surprise too.

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