a bit of a New Look fiend at present but...

...summary of recent New Look news:

1. New Look will be touring the UK and Europe from October onwards, including two nights in London. See their website for details.

2. On 7th October during the day they will be playing a special gig at Rough Trade East, London for those who purchased the album. Entry by wristband only: click here for details

3. The self-titled album will be released on 26th September. Click here to check out three of the tracks (Nap on the Bow, You & I and Drive You Home).

4. New Look got mainstream British attention by being The Guardian's New Band of the Day for 14th September. In it, the upcoming record was hailed as "one of the albums of the year."

Wow, all this New Look news in only three days! The internet works in mysterious ways.

Friends- I'm His Girl

Friends- I'm His Girl

(2011, Lucky Number Music)

I noticed on twitter this morning that Friends will be releasing a new 7" single and thought it was worthy of a new blog post. Great song, very catchy and full of effervescent positivity. It is certainly getting better with every listen. The band are sounding like a cleaned up Best Coast; something that could have been on the three-piece's Crazy For You if not for the clearer production and neater presentation of their songs. Indeed if it was, it would have probably been one of its strongest tracks!

The song is a dictated lesson in the nature of a good relationship, which gives 'I'm His Girl' a sense of self-confidence and empowerment as clear and unapologetic as Beyonce's Single Ladies (albeit the message to young women is completely different and is about giving one other space, not marriage!) Samantha Urbani takes cues from her own satisfaction in the one line chorus: "When you see me walking around with him, I'm not just another chick, I'm.....his.....girl." It is masterful in reeling you in, and her cool self-confidence is sexy and finger-tingling. Then, when there's a bridge 2/3 of the way through and all you hear apart from Urbani is a cowbell/wooden block, she takes centre stage to deliver a blunt message in full, off-hand, and almost a little disinterested:

"If you love someone, let them be free. I know I don't want no one suffocating me. Don't settle for ownership, make a team. If you love someone, it should feel good to let them breathe."

It is corny, but in Urbani's deft delivery, 'I'm His Girl' manages to be deadly serious and flirtatious at the same time: a confusing, poker-faced flirt. It's out 31 October via Lucky Number Music (limited to 500 copies). Ooo you filthy dogs- keep your relationship safe.

Check it out above!

just for the hell of it.....

Sweet Female Attitude- Flowers

(2000)

I don't why I'm posting this but to hell with it. (It's not the official video). Sort of coming from all the cool shit New Look reminds me of.

New Look- Janet

New Look- Janet

(September 27th 2011)

New Look- Nap on the Bow

New Look- The Ballad

I’d like to thank a blog called WDPK 83.7 fm, which looks right up my alley according to a cursory viewing for they've revealed to me a band called New Look, who were featured on Jamie xx’s IMMENSE BBC Radio 1 mix broadcast 27^th August. Somehow they passed me by.

Information on New Look proved hard to come by but I got hold of some in the end. An album is due on 26th September via !K7 Records- although I can't find a name- and the band, consisting of married couple Sarah Ruba and Adam Pavao hail from Canada. It won't be their first release. An EP called How's My Hair was out in 2008 (listen to it here).

Anyway, head over to WDPK 83.7 fm to download ‘The Ballad’ and ‘Nap on the Bow’, which show that New Look really have some special vibes, or check them out above. Haunting electro ballads with deep R&B hooks. 'Nap on the Bow' is my favourite. It's an absolute belter.

Their website is http://newlookmusic.com/

Also find Jamie xx mix containing other aural nuggets.

Jamie xx Essential Mix by Young Turks

Friends- Friend Crush

Friends- Friend Crush

(2011, Lucky Number Music)

Friends only formed in spring 2010, yet their debut 7” ‘Friend Crush’ set firm intentions about the sophistication Friends can channel into their jilted dance pop. Signed up by Lucky Number Music for this record (although not for an album), the band share the UK label with Caged Animals, another band practising droning, slurred music oozing listlessness. “That first practice went so incredibly well, we knew we had something going on”, songwriter Samantha Urbani told Stereogum this April. “After that we really threw ourselves into practising almost every day, and playing 2 or 3 shows a week, only because we loved what we were doing so much.”

Hailing from Bushwick, New York and constituting five stylish, good-looking boys and girls, there is a partial gloss of cool about Friends even before you’ve heard the music. However it is tunes driving their appeal. ‘Friend Crush’s 250 print run sold out fast (I bought one on Ebay) and no doubt their debut London show with Caged Animals on 27^th September will be a big draw too.

The song is immediate. It is pressing, anxious and tense, as though always on the precipice of a lick that never comes. Consequently the band have been compared with great new-wave inspired, alternative 80s acts like ESG and Tom Tom Club. Another infectious number ‘Feeling Dank’ is on soundcloud.

Bombay Bicycle Club- A Different Kind of Fix

Bombay Bicycle Club- A Different Kind of Fix

(2011, Island)

Bombay Bicycle Club are a band I’ve always wanted to see live but have never quite got round to. I watched their 2011 Reading and 2010 Glastonbury performances on the BBC, both of which looked really fun and impressive. Approaching my age, middle-class and from a nearby part of London, they also remind me of my own youth. They are still young (three years since completing their A-Levels and already three albums into their career is an astonishing achieving that almost brings to mind some kind of Chinese musical prodigy band) and yet they seem easygoing, unaffected by the fame so exceptional for people their age, just enjoying their touring and recording. If there’s one thing that’s obvious on an inspection of a Bombay Bicycle Club live performance, it’s that the band love doing it: their interaction with the crowd (usually a loyal following), cheery smiles and genuine exuberance bring out obvious good humour and level-headedness in their attitude to a typically (or typically portrayed) heady, glamorous and occasionally debauched profession: rock band.

Bombay Bicycle Club’s clean-cut image has not opened them up to jibes or cynicism, however, probably because their musical output continues to bear them out. Three albums in two years has sort of made a mockery of artists who labour over music, posturing over tone or production or management: it really does seem as though Bombay do what they want and realise they are just part of a stupid heady circus. Every album though (including A Different Kind of Fix it seems) has been received well, and has taken their career to a new, concrete level. To me Bombay will be around for a long time: slow-burner intelligent types, quietly hanging around until every indie kid in sight is gobbled up, spat out and sent on their way with a few CDs, loyal patriotism to the Bombay uncharacteristic of this flippant age and a cheery spring in their step. I thought this from the moment I heard I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose. Doing what you want is obvious, but for this band it seems to coincide with some kind of chink in the indie music zeitgeist which only Bombay Bicycle Club seem able to fill.

A Different Kind of Fix seems in many ways a coming of age LP- greater self-awareness, reflection and hardiness than the last. Flaws was acoustic, quiet and simple but it lacked depth at times. ‘Ivy & Gold’ and ‘Rinse Me Down’ were casual little ditties; though wonderfully formed and touching, they were not particularly penetrating. The opening riff of ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’, however- the first few minutes of the album- suggests a slightly more serious and sobering affair on A Different Kind of Fix. Trudging into the darker ‘Bad Timing’, a more staid demure is confirmed. Echo effects swirl around Suren’s drums as Jack Steadman tries to carry his voice over the atmospheric feedback. I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose would never have tolerated this grungy, heavy pondering, yet posing themselves a challenge, Bomaby Bicycle Club shed their image as loitering children. Reverberating guitars and vocals persist on ‘Your Eyes’ in which it sounds like Jack Steadman greets us from inside a cave. The production adds to the sense that Bombay Bicycle Club are less whimsical, less delicate and ready to carry themselves into a new, more mature phase. Animal Collective producer Ben Allen can be credited with producing this distinctly different feel that plays on the slightly more nuanced character of their music.

Other highlights include ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ (see above Reading link), fun single ‘Shuffle’ and the haunting, melancholic ‘Still’. A Different Kind of Fix is a prime example of Bombay Bicycle Club blending the kind of catchy pop that was present on their debut with more unusual song structures, occasional moroseness (especially in the second half of the album) and a reverberating style of orchestration. In essence, the band still sound like they’re enjoying themselves, which remains the most obvious and important factor in delivering the quality that we have come to expect from Bombay Bicycle Club LPs. On ‘Beggars’ they indulge in a slight folksy stint; whooping harmonies and rich guitars suggest Steadman could even be developing the band as a new Fleet Foxes!

On the strength of this album, I don’t doubt that A Different Kind of Fix will be just as big a hit as its two predecessors and that Steadman & Co will quietly plod forward towards NME notoriety, positive reviews and even bigger shows with just as many loyal fans. One day when they split up we will turn back and look at how four teenagers from Crouch End managed to in their own unassuming way outlive the allure of cool bands like Foals and Klaxons, and puncture trends as completely irrelevant. There has been no sense of entitlement on which to hang their coats, just focus, dedication and songcraft. In the spirit of that sensibly steady-Eddy description, if there is one band your Mum might like you to like, Bombay Bicycle Club still could be it. However if this is the music they write, I don’t really care.

how to dress well- decisions from 'just once' ep

In sort of self-congratulatory commemoration of approximately a year of TTG, here is 'Decisions' from the Just Once EP by How to Dress Well. It's rather fitting because 'Decisions' was the first song posted by this blog, back on 25th June 2010. Since then there have been a further 52 posts (this will now make it 54 overall), and How to Dress Well, the artist to whom this blog has probably been most closely allied with in its own petty insular way has, I'm pleased to say, risen to a reasonable measure of critical acclaim. 'Just Once' is a four-track limited edition orchestral EP released to commemorate the passing of a good friend of Tom Krell (HTDW) and part of the proceeds will go to charity.

Anyway- may post later today with more info/another review of some kind so stay tuned!

Baxter Dury- Happy Soup

Baxter Dury- Happy Soup

(2011, Parlophone)

The problem, the paradox with children of popstars is that no matter to whom and to what they align themselves, it is nearly impossible for the public to stop seeing parents in them. These often more successful forerunners to their offspring loom large like menacing spirits in the room, dampening it must be said, the pursuits of their children. Where music is concerned, critics very often take aim with their metaphorical rotten fruit; yet when your Dad is a rock n roll icon, it isn’t easy to realise your own qualities at the best of times, let alone live up to the expectation that has been foisted upon you.

This is not Baxter Dury’s first album; however, in the two weeks since its release, Happy Soup has already proved to be his most widely publicised. The son of Ian Dury and the Blockheads singer Ian Dury, Baxter, now nearly 40, has had two previous LP- Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift in 2002 and Floor Show in 2005. The film Sex & Drugs & Roll revealed some of the tumultuous experiences he went through as a child under his Dad’s heady rock n roll influence.

That back-story though clearly did not get in the way of critics’ response to this latest Dury outing. No. You see Happy Soup­ is an odd, ramshackle, cockney Londoner’s album. It’s Baxter’s, not Ian’s, teasing out and celebrating as it does the idiosyncrasies of his own unusual persona. Dury’s voice is striking: strikingly plain, dour, direct and deadpan. Unsentimentally recalling personal events that really should warrant some kind of emotion or cracking of the mask, his style is like a male Lily Allen in middle-age, Alan Donohue from London band The Rakes in positively sombre form. With witty urban social commentary and pokerfaced delivery giving the impression that Dury is jaded, quietly brooding and disconnected from his own depictions, Happy Soup in many ways appears mildly cathartic. Indeed he apparently didn’t change the names of ‘Claire’ of ‘Isabel’, which describe former relationships. “I think my mate slept with you when you were in Portugal” is one such revelation, yet Dury delivers it like trying to get his words recognised on an automated booking line.

If Dury’s songs are about personal experience, he tries not to wallow in their sorry bog, both in terms of his disconnected delivery and the music itself. In the spirit of the English rock everyman, ‘Trellic’ delivers a simple riff and vocal that would put the best Rakes and Art Brut tracks to shame. Yet, even when trying to sound hopeful, the morose atmosphere usually wins. On ‘Leak at the Disco’ (a song closely resembling Maximo Park’s ‘Acrobat’ from 2005), he sings to a thudding bass drum and carefully chosen synth notes: “Love has all but broken you” goes the grim chorus line. In these moments, Dury finds tenderness and beauty. There is an implication somewhere in the music that sadness and reflection will one day bring redemption; that all is not lost, but we cannot find a way out just now. The song soars to its anxious close. Elsewhere, Dury uses sparse instrumentation to draw attention to his voice and lyrics.

Happy Soup is a great and unusual album. It is well-imagined, easy to listen to and while in betrayal of its title it is a little downhearted, excellent instrumentation and Dury’s sensitively summoned vocal transform its defeatism into a rich, human and vivid charm that belie its simplicity. For those who are interested, Happy Soup is one of Rough Trade's picks of the month. Baxter will also be touring the UK in October/November this year.

The Antlers @ Screen on the Green

Live Review: The Antlers @ Screen on the Green, London 24/8/11

The scene was set for this most special of gigs. A small, unassuming cinema in North London, big comfy red sofas, an empty high street and lots of highly charged early twenty somethings trying to hide their anticipation by tweeting as the clock edged towards midnight.

The American indie band The Antlers have undergone something of a renaissance since the release of their album Burst Apart. Its predecessor Hospice, quite literally an album designed to mirror the process of grieving in response to someone with a terminal illness was a colossal, ghastly, tender, confusing record. It was bold and at the same time such a strong concept that it came to pretty much define the band since its 2009 release. Its album cover depicted a hospital patient’s hand, identified by a hospital wrist band, falling into the hand of someone else. It was unrelentingly bleak. Yet how could it be followed? Another critical and (within its niche) commercial success followed that attracted more interest, inviting fans into The Antlers’ wildly ambitious environs.

The cinema setting was perfect for this gig. The Antlers are not, by their own admission I’m sure, a band to get people dancing. Rather their music is reflective and emotional, a band to get people thinking and feeling rather than moving. As lead singer and guitarist Peter Silberman and co appeared (seemingly from the cinema’s toilets) and invited everyone forward, the front few rows shuffled to the stage. I hoped they would begin with a tongue-in-cheek reference to their setting by playing the ubiquitous theme from Pearl & Dean.

Opening into the first track from Burst Apart, the set led best foot forward. Clear, rolling guitars filled the room and with ‘I Don’t Want Love’ we were underway, Silberman’s unique high-pitched falsetto sounding more vivid and sweetly defined than I’ve ever heard it. Silberman doesn’t so much sing, as let his lungs give way and soar and swoon, as though he is about to take off. His head rolls and his eyes occasionally screw up, as though he is making an effort to re-live the inception of the song, or disappear into a gentler, more re-assuring world in which his fears and anguish are assuaged. The significance of ‘Parentheses’, the lead single, is somewhat lost in this melee as the full album is played through, the grand context of Burst Apart coming to life and finally realising itself.

In my opinion this album sounded better live than it does on record. The transition to the live arena was so clear that Burst Apart almost sounds like a different album, analogous with a polished, re-mastered film being stripped of everything, the re-workings dropped, and restored back to its former glory, brilliant and warm. ‘Rolled Together’ and ‘Corscicana’ were particularly poignant, both pained and tender laments in which Silberman emanates a gentle vocal melody into a swirling wind of effects. These songs lapped at the ears of the audience and brought us unexpectedly and quietly closer together. Some people around me glanced at each other, giving amazed looks that Silberman could sustain such impossibly high-pitched dulcet tones for so long.

The set closed on a song from Hospice, the second one of the night after the band decided to play an impromptu version of ‘Bear’ following some technical difficulties. Perhaps the most well known song from that album, ‘Sylvia’ rang out in this now tired but involved and fully immersed cinema audience. Delivering Burst Apart in a live setting was always going to be tough. I have been to gigs where slow-burner, emotive and occasionally exhausting indie music has felt like a drag when taken out of its specifically aural confines, and audiences stand around, achy, even ignoring the band sometimes for a chat that can drown out the music: but not here. The setting (cinemas, I think, should be used more often for gigs from a certain kind of band), and mostly the band’s personal dedication to make this event live up to its ‘special’ billing made it a unique and touching event. Silberman’s sorry, grand, mawkish, stimulating ensemble should do this again. Burst Apart did itself justice yesterday, as a complicated and engrossing record.

new best coast- how they want me to be

Hey folks! Here's some new Best Coast for you. It's called 'How They Want Me To Be' and it is a typically laid back, unassuming affair. Here's a note that accompanied it:

"You guys have been some of the most wonderful fans this past year, and I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting Best Coast. When times are rough for me, and I am traveling and not sleeping, and am worried about daily life, it always makes me feel better to know that my fans are out there.

I know I've been talking a lot about our second album, but it's still very far away from being created. I wanted to share a bit of life from recent Best Coast with you guys, so I thought I would post this song for you all to hear as a little teaser for the album.

This song was recorded a few months ago at Black Iris, the same studio we recorded "Crazy For You." This song is not properly mixed, it's mostly a rough studio demo of a song I wrote and wanted to record. I am about 99% sure that this song will get re-recorded and changed up a bit and will end up on our second album. It's called "How They Want Me To Be."

It's just a small taste of what's to come, and I wanted to give you guys something to get excited about since you've been the best fans in the whole world!

I am off to New York to start a weekend of fly in dates, so wish me luck, and I hope you all love this song and I can't wait to record more."

Love,

Bethany