The Daily Growl

It’s not like I expect to go to gigs and hear bands do a perfect recreation of their album’s songs on stage. That would just be too boring. That said, I wasn’t quite ready for the M. Ward live experience on Tuesday night. I’m sure the muddy sound mix for the first few songs didn’t help, but I guess I also wasn’t really prepared for a proper rock ‘n’ roll show.

I mean, I’m not exactly a stranger to the work of Matthew Stephen Ward, but I still had him down as a dusty alt-country type, so the rock, the roll and the straight up honky tonk took me a little by surprise. Not that it should though - listening to his albums, the elements are all there - from the short snappiness of the songs to the barrelling piano riffs. It’s just that tonight it’s in my face and after my adjusting, it sounds great.

By the time the sound got sorted and I had got used to the band, they had left the stage, leaving Mr Ward alone with an acoustic guitar. This is where he really shines. That he’s a good guitarist is obvious enough from his electric crunching, but it’s in the acoustic realm that his brilliance is all the more obvious.  The only other time I’d seen M. Ward before was in 2005, just up the road at Bush Hall. That time it was the man himself which was wonderful. Tonight I don’t want the solo numbers to end. But he’d brought band all the way across the Atlantic, and it would be rude not to use them.

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So you’re the keyboard player for Emmy the Great. Of course, this isn’t your full-time occupation, so how do you spend your time away from knocking out sweet folk-pop melodies? How about creating spiky instrumental math rock which pitches your band as the British Battles? This might not seem like the most obvoious direction, but for Tom Rogerson, it’s clearly the way to go for his band Three Trapped Tigers. He may not like the term math rock, but he should of thought about that when calling all his songs numbers. Still, we should be glad that he’s doing this, as we should be that the Too Pure Singles Club, currently in a spate of particularly rude health, has released a couple of his numerical gems.

mp3: Three Trapped Tigers - 1

7 b/w 1 is out on 7 July on Too Pure Singles Club. Pre-order from Rough Trade or subscribe.

Peggy Sue haven’t been on this blog much, though they really ought to have been. I’ve got a couple of live radio sessions going back over two years which I never got round to posting. And somehow I never featured any of their singles, most of which have been very good. In that time they’ve been through some changes. Katy Young (ala Katy Klaw) and Rosa Slade (aka Rosa Rex) have dropped “and the Pirates” from their name, now trading as plain old Peggy Sue, but not before a one-off collaboration with Daily Growl faves Left With Pictures which saw the temporary moniker Peggy Sue and the Pictures. They’ve had a change of personnel too, recently adding the mysterious Olly to their line-up.

Oddly enough, in these past couple of years they’ve not seen much rise in their stature, even with a lot of big-ups from their celebrity mate Kate Nash, as well as a fair amount of critical acclaim. They’ve continued putting out quality releases though, and the latest Lover Gone EP is came out last month. Like previous records, it’s full of lo-fi acoustic duet goodness, which sees Katy and Rosa trading lines and lyrics with customary aplomb, and Olly bashing away behind them. On Revision, they even abandon their guitars for piano, shifting from slow and mournful to fast and jaunty with ease. Enthusiasm and fun triumphs over slickness and everyone’s happy.

Their fortunes however could be about to change with the release of their debut album, which they recently recorded in New York City. Let’s hope so. In the meantime, here are some songs - my favourite track from the new EP, a cute cover of Missy Elliot’s All n My Grill and a new song, performed live on a BBC 6 Music session recently, so new it didn’t even have name.

mp3: Peggy Sue - The Conservationist
mp3: Peggy Sue - All n My Grill (Missy Elliot cover)
mp3: Peggy Sue - New Song (live on BBC 6 Music)

The Lover Gone EP is available to buy now from Peggy Sue’s blog. Peggy Sue perform next weekend at this ace-sounding Willkommen Collective bash at Stanmer House near Brighton, as well as Glastonbury and a bunch of other festivals this summer.

She Keeps Bees like to keep it brief. The 11 tracks on their latest album Nests clock in at less than 27 minutes, so it’s clear that they’re not pissing about. It’s this brevity that’s part of their appeal. No flab, just straight to the point bluesy rocking that ought to have Jack and Meg looking over their shoulders.

Songwriter and guitarist Jessica Larrabee’s voice is another huge element of appeal; raw and emotive and not unlike my other female vocal fave of the year, Marian Wallentin of Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Indeed, the first track Ribbon, sung without guitar and only Andy LaPlant’s drums accompanying, could fit easily on the Swedish couple’s latest album. Bones Are Tired, sung softly a capella, is a haunting treat, but elsewhere guitars are cranked up and lyrics are delivered more forcefully. It’s all pleasingly stripped down and uncomplicated, but totally focused and leaves you wanting more.

The band also keep it brief in answering my seven questions, but give a little glimpse into just how their fantastic lo-fi sound came about.

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Bringing musical legends together to collaborate and record stuff can be a great idea, but it can come with the great burden of expectation, which may cloud your judgement on how good it is. This is the case for me with the first two albums in the Inspiration Information series, released on the revitalised Strut label. The first one, at the end of last year, was Sly and Robbie teaming up with Amp Fiddler, swiftly followed by Horace Andy getting together with Ashley Beedle. Between all of these, there’s such an enormous weight of previous brilliance that you’re going to expect some magic when they get together. But despite having many fine moments, somehow these collaborations seem like less than the sum of their parts, and not as amazing as I’d have hoped for.

However a very pleasant surprise comes with the third in the series, which sees the fruits of the meeting of Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics. Maybe it’s because both these sets of artists were pretty much unknown to me, that I didn’t have the expectations of the previous efforts. Or maybe it’s just because it is great on its own accord. I don’t know but I’ve developed a lot of love for this record over the past couple of months. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with these guys (like I was), Mulatu Astatke is a legend of Ethiopian jazz, and an ace vibrophone player. My only previous exposure to him was first in Jim Jarmusch’s film Broken Flowers, which featured his music as the running score; then there were a few tracks on the excellent Best of Ethiopiques compilation. But he’s a legend no doubt, particularly in his home nation. Something borne out by the fact that when he played in London for the first time in 15 years, last April, the Ethiopian ambassador to Britain was dancing onstage with the great man (testified to me by a friend who was there). That gig was the beginning of the relationship between Astatke and The Heliocentrics, the London-based group centred around Malcolm Catto, who have, amongst many other things, backed up DJ Shadow. But it’s in backing Astatke that they hit a very rich vein of form.

Since I don’t have much of a frame of reference for this album, there’s little point in me embarrassing myself. I can hear that it’s jazzy and the beats are strong, but it’s best I stop there. What I do know that it’s a breeze of an album that I’ve found damn near irresistible lately, just getting into that groove and staying there all the way through. All day even. It’s summer folks, and this is the perfect soundtrack to pouring a cold one and kicking back. Nice.

mp3: Horace Andy & Ashley Beedle - Festival Song
mp3: Sly and Robbie & Amp Fiddler - Crazy Day
mp3: Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Masengo
mp3: Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Blue Nile

The Inspiration Information albums are out now on Strut. Buy from Amazon. If you only buy one go for (unsurprisingly) Mulatu and the Heliocentrics.

Mulatu photo by Redheadwalking.

There’s been a belated rush of stuff on this blog about Fanfarlo lately, but rightly so. Their brilliant recent album Reservoir has been on steady rotation round my way; so what next to do other than invite lead singer Simon Balthazar (that’s him in the middle) to answer my seven questions. Oh, and you’ve got two weeks left to download Reservoir for $1. Get to it!

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Since I last talked about End of the Road Festival, a whole bunch of new artists have been announced since the start of June. It’s shaping up quite nicely.

First we had the unsigned bands who applied to the competition to play at the festival. 950 bands applied and only 9 have been chosen. They are Bear Driver, Esben and the Witch, The Hand, Holly Throsby, Huw M, Jess Elva, (the previously blogged) Soy Un Caballo, Stars of Sunday League and The Tenebrous Liar.

Some bigger names announced last week: The Horrors, Blitzen Trapper, Brakes, The Duke and the King, Loney, Dear, Shearwater, Vetiver and Wye Oak. They were preceded a few days previously by the line-up at the Local Tent, which is run by ace London promoters The Local who have put together another fine collection of acts, which should see the tent regularly packed out again this year. The Week That Was, Get The Blessing, Chief, Quack Quack, Spokes, The Travelling Band, Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo, Zun Zun Egui, The Heavy, Stardeath and White Dwarves, Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, Magic Arm, She Keeps Bees, Alasdair Roberts, AU, Twi the Humble Feather, Laura Gibson, and The Pack A.D, are all on.

And that’s it. At least according to this discussion. Apart from the crucial Sunday evening headliner, which still seems to be proving elusive to the organisers. Although I’m pretty satisfied with the line-up so far, let’s hope they can snag someone decent to top the last night soon.

As usual, I haven’t heard (of) some of these bands, but given the quality of the line-up in recent years, they’ll all be worth checking out. I’m listening to Wye Oak as I type. Sounds good.

Although my love for End of the Road remains unbounded, if I was to choose a festival purely on line-up this year, I think it would be Green Man. Like End of the Road, they’re getting the unsigned bands in too; in their case someone to open the festival on the main stage. They’ve gone for the reality TVapproach, so if you’re interested (or more likely, if you personally know any of the bands) you can vote for the lucky bunch at the Green Man website.

mp3: Brakes - Hey Hey
mp3: Soy Un Caballo - A Travers la Neige
mp3: Chief - Stealing

Buy Tickets for End of the Road here.

Although I’m well overdue another retrospective look at my singles collection, it seems timely this week to come to Richard Hawley. After all, the Sheffield balladeer has just announced the release of his sixth solo album, Truelove’s Gutter, which is due in September. Looking at the tracklisting, it seems a brief affair at only eight tracks; though if they’re all killers, it should be just fine. I’m increasingly convinced that it’s a rare thing for any band to have an album with more than 11 tracks which are all good. And no prizes for guessing what the songs are going to sound like. Hawley’s hardly going to follow his buddy and former bandmate Jarvis Cocker in an Albini badass rock direction, even given his love of rockabilly.

But anyway, Richard Hawley and I go back a long way. I need to include Mrs Growl in this too, because she’s a much bigger fan than I am, although I do share in some of her enthusiasm. I remember (back in 2001) us sitting in the Oxford Street Borders one evening after work with about ten other people listening to this northern bloke serenading us with tales of being Naked in Pitsmoor and crying for the Man on the Moon. Even in these strange, muted circumstances, the songs and his wry, abrasive humour shone through, and here we are now eight years on eagerly awaiting his next album.

As we do, here are some tracks from three different CD singles, released to accompany each one of Hawley’s first three albums. First was Coming Home, from the 2001 debut self-titled mini-album. Next was Baby You’re My Light, still one of his greatest songs, from the same year’s Late Night Final. Third was Run to Me from the motorcycle-themed Lowedges record in 2003. None of the a-sides are posted though. I’ve gone for a selection the lesser-known b-sides, which are all pretty good, though may not be so easy to come by. And given his growing back catalogue, you’re unlikely to hear them played live either. Which is a shame, because it’s live that Richard Hawley is always best experienced.

mp3: Richard Hawley - Cheap Spanish Whine
mp3: Richard Hawley - Sick Pay
mp3: Richard Hawley - Troublesome Waters

Buy Richard Hawley stuff from Amazon.

Oh, it’s that time of the month again. Music Alliance Pact time, when the collected recommendations of a motley bunch of international bloggers are unleashed on the world. Last month’s edition caught the attention of American music website Spin, which featured the full May MAP on its pages. So onwards and upwards then. This month I’m concentrating on Fanafarlo. After falling so much for their Reservoir album in the past couple of weeks, I couldn’t rightly feature anyone else.

Read on for more international shenanigans.

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It’s been a while since there’s been any Young Republic on here, but that’s about to change because they’ve got a new EP out this week. It’s a nice little taster for their new album Balletesque (previously touted on this blog here), previewing three songs plus a couple of extra tracks - an alternative version of the album’s title track and a new one called Shine On Harvest Moon. They’re all great and the title of the new one may give you a clue as to what it sounds like. To mark the occasion, I asked Chris Miller, the band’s bassist (that’s him on the right), to answer my seven questions. See below for what he has to say about songs to play at weddings, rebelling against the American Dream and what country music does to you. There’s a video too.

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