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Wednesday 30 May 2012

Slowdive - Just For A Day


Slowdive were chief pioneers of the oft derided shoegaze scene , A name that sort of clung to bands that were anywhere from near the Thames Valley at the time of the early 90's or had the courage to let the music take center stage and not some ape of a frontman. I saw these at the slough music festival in 1991, We went to see Ride and discovered Thousand Yard Stare and Slowdive instead !!

Neil Halstead and Rachael Goswell were the mainstays and went onto form Mojave 3 once slowdive had run its course. On this the bands first album release epic guitars and soaring vocals mix with lush arrangements and all in all make a perfect racket for a hot summers day, bands such as My bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse  took up lots of column inches around this time but this really is where all the praise should have been,

A timeless classic.

Spanish Air
Celia's Dream
Catch The Breeze
Ballad Of Sister Sue
Erik's Song
Waves
Brighter
The Sadman
Primal


Sunday 20 May 2012

Embrace - The Good Will Out


Brothers in the band - check
Northern attitude - check
Epic tunes - check
full on drunk lad singalongs - check

No its not Oasis but Embrace and brothers Danny and Richard McNamara. 

This was actually fantastic The album achieved critical acclaim as well as success in terms of sales, going gold on its first day of release, becoming one of the fastest-ever-selling debut albums by a British artist, and going on to sell over 500,000 copies domestically,  musically its a cross between oasis, verve and any of the white boy indie guitar bands around during the mid 90's. 

Intro
All You Good Good People
Retread
One Big Family
Come Back to What You Know
Higher Sights
My Weakness Is none Of Your Business
I Want The World
Blind
Fireworks
The Last Gas
That's All Changed Forever
Now You're Nobody
The Good Will Out 

Saturday 19 May 2012

Cud - Leggy Mambo


CUD ARE BACK.......... and a nation rejoices! 

well someone probably did.... 

I first heard Cud on Mark Radcliff's hit the north radio show, Robinson Crusoe and Hey Boots were a slab of indie rock that sounded fantastic and nothing like the madchester tunes that he usually played, Cud came from Leeds, itself a vibrant city full of bands, music and attitude, not unlike its close northern cousin Manchester, 

This didn't really trouble the charts , that came later with the Aquarius album but this is far far superior , As i said earlier the band have reformed and are playing gigs throughout 2012, including a support slot with Carter USM and two dates with the Wedding Present... not to be missed!

Now!
Heart
Hey, Boots
Love In a Hollow Tree
Love Mandarin
Not Exactly D.L.E.R.C.
Robinson Crusoe
Eau Water
Carl's 115th Coach Trip Nightmare
Magic
Syrup and Sour Grapes
Brain on a Slow Train


Tuesday 8 May 2012

Tiger - Rosario


Second (and last) album syndrome? possibly but Tiger stopped being edgy and when you lose that certain something you become just another run of the mill indie band , its a real shame as first album We Are Puppets was never off my walk man but this one Rosario, i hardly played.... maybe i didn't give it a chance at the time, maybe the band had fell out of favour with the music press and its actually my fault for not being loyal! 

I know i'm going to re listen and make a judgement, by the time you read this i actually may not still be listening however... you know that's always the best thing to do

Friends
I Was A Rolling Stone
Speak To Me
Girl From The Petrol Station
Candy And Andy
Birmingham
Root Cage
Soho Soul
Bee Song
Our Simple Life
River
Rox Baroque


Wednesday 2 May 2012

The Cooper Temple Clause - See This Through and Leave


Glam anthems and hardcore rants. The whir of techno and the crunch of britpop. Emo-boy crying and scary stalker screeds. The Cooper Temple Clause are a wily bunch, that's for sure.

Their debut album, See This Through and Leave, seems at first listen to be a mish mash of all that's wrong with guitar rock: Unoriginal genre-splicing. Maudlin songwriting. Uninspired lyrics. Annoying sibling-band guitars. A contrived and utterly overdone ragamuffin slack-boy image. It's the stuff vengeful rock critics are seething with. At first it gives you pause. Why would anyone want to make this album? well, the damn album gets in your head. It works its way in there like a rare South American parasite worming through your brain.

And the only way to get it out -- naturally, in this case -- is to play the album until you're sick of it.

Here they come, the young men with the unwieldy name and topiary haircuts, waving the flag for revitalised UK guitar rock 2002.  They have last year's most idiosyncratic Top 40 hit, 'Kill All Music' under their second-hand belts, and a (deserved) reputation for bone-rattlingly bonkers live performances. Still, they're an unlikely bunch.  Cooper Temple Clause don't so much kill music as deconstruct and reanimate it like deranged Dr. Frankentein's stitching together limbs from every conceivable genre onto a twitching post-rock torso.

As a result, their debut album 'See This Through...' is a defiant, often thrilling, monstrosity.
There are so many ideas crammed into this record that within the first three minutes you'll be asking if it's the same band, much less the same song, you're listening to.  CTC ricochet around like rocks in a tumble dryer, and although it1s difficult to find anything to cling to, their schizoid fusion of influences is impressive and their energy is relentless.  The click and thud of techno coexists with propulsive Primals rock'n'roll in 'Prazer
Attack', 'Who Needs Enemies?' is like an uglier Oasis covering Portishead, and 'Did You Miss Me?' start sweet and spangly before ballooning into a sinister, bloated stalker-anthem.  Throughout, there are shades of everyone from Floyd to The Pixies, Spiritualized to Supergrass, Cheap Trick to Zeppelin. The only consistent elements are a prodigious, agitated wall of sound and Ben Gautrey's raw-throated vocals.

It takes guts to be unfashionable, and CTC are patently unaffected by the zeitgeist - wearing their patchouli proudly in an arena full of Calvin Klein.  They simply do what they do, and we can take it or leave it.
There's no obsequious genuflection to the current vogue for trad-retro revivalism. Some songs trail on for eight minutes plus, and there's no discernible tune on the whole album.  The only contemporary band CTC are comparable to, possibly, is Muse, as both embrace ludicrous excess with shameless enthusiasm. And neither, apparently, are afraid of looking ridiculous. While a band that manages to reference both Ogden Nash and the Moody Blues can't be all bad, chances are they're not all good either.
CTC do have weaknesses, and being unfocused is certainly one of them. It's also strange that for all its emotional-sounding contortions, this records still feels so hollow. 'See This Through...' is more for the head than the heart (though exactly whose head is hard to say). The only thing heartening is that such a complex and unconventional sound can be making populist impact - not only puncturing the charts, but landing CTC with a video spot virtually every five minutes on MTV2 for 'Been Training Dogs'.  Their appeal may be difficult to define, but they've definitely got it


Did You Miss Me?
Film Maker
Panzer Attack
Who Needs Enemies?
Amber
Digital Observation
Let's Kill Music
555-4823
Been Training Dogs
The Lake
Murder Song