Listen to Leah Hayes’ AMAZING voice.

What’s this? !!! Go to Leah Hayes’ blog.

Listen to that song. Listen to her voice. Absolutely incredible! Wowee. SO TALENTED, that lady! SO talented. Good skills.

SUMMARY

Oops, I just looked at that last Antlers post, and it’s stupidly long. Apologies.

The gist is:

1. The Antlers are amazing

2. The Antlers are amazing

3. Epilogue is probably the best thing ever

4. The Antlers are amazing.

Additional points:

1. The Antlers are amazing

2. I miss them already. Sob sob sob.

3. They loved Nando’s. Darby loves the wings, especially.

4. The Antlers are amazing.

The Antlers at UNION CHAPEL

YES! EPIC GIANT HUGE WIN WORTHY YES YES YES!

Tickets on sale Friday from here. The Antlers’ world domination is now in full effect. Union Chapel! That’s so good! So happy for them! Yes! They deserve it. I really am so so so so so happy that they’re doing so well- people need to hear their wonderful music. 

March 3rd, 2010. MARK YOUR DIARY!

Scary Mansion

Yes! Remember Scary Mansion? That band I’ve hardly ever blogged about? The one with the singer who is also a hugely talented illustrator? Yes? YES! I am just having one of those overwhelming moments of love for this amazing band. LEAH HAYES! Look at this thing she drew:

After a good show there is always, what I like to call, “DANGER TIME”. Danger Time is when I am so swoony and joyous that I am in danger of saying stupidly hyperbolic things and getting in the ’so good’ loop (where, like a stuck record, literally all I can say is ’so good’ solidly for about 5 minutes). 

Lucky after the Paris show I managed to reign in some self control and I don’t think I did the whole Danger Time thing. Partly because I was on my own and everyone was French and probably would have been confused if I went up to them saying ’so good so good so good’.

BUT! There is a chance for more Scary Mansion Danger Time! I am hopefully going to catch them in Paris again next February. I’m working on a plan. Last time, my dad was kind enough to put me in a hotel because my original plan was to just save money by not getting a room and just strolling about Paris all night. I think it will be cold in February and thus it makes sense to get a room. It will be fun.

So, the thing that made me all excitable for Scary Mansion was this video. I guess it was filmed back in April when Scary Mansion were in France. Leah’s voice is ridiculously raspy; she had a sore throat at the Paris show. I think the raspiness works brilliantly! Her voice is so wonderful. Leah and her sister Vanessa play Mighty and New Hampshire. Mighty is from this year’s Make Me Cry and New Hampshire is from Every Joke Is Half The Truth. I love Mighty but New Hampshire is my favourite. I love that song so so so much. Leah’s fragile voice is beautiful and works so well. Look forward to seeing them again. Listen to the new record, it’s great.

Scary Mansion AHOY!

Sail Away Ladies!

Wow, everyone is being so kind about that Tristram video I made earlier. Thanks! Animation is time consuming and lots of work, but it’s really fun (!). I only made a jaunt into it the other day, because I wanted to tell the story of when some milkshake got on my shoe. Funny the things that inspire me. So here is my next project that I’ll do later this week…

My friend Alan runs the wonderful Wears The Trousers, who, along with Charlotte Richardson Andrews, have put together an album of beautiful songs. They’ve curated this fantastic album of cover songs, by artists such as: Anais Mitchell, Pepi Ginsberg, Josephine Foster, Marissa Nadler, Ane Brun and many more. What a giant epic win. The songs are all covers of songs performed by Odetta, who was apparently dubbed the “Queen of American folk music” by Martin Luther King Jr. Not bad, not bad…

The album opens with this sweet song Sail Away Ladies performed by Linda Draper. It’s so bouncy and fun. You can hear it over here. Alan and I are going to make a video for it. It will be colourful and hopefully reflect how lovely the song is.

In the mean time, be excited about the album! It’s called Beautiful Star: The Songs of Odetta and is out November 30th as a limited CD or as a download. Make your pre-orders over here. All profits are being put towards two different charities. 

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The Tailors: Come Dig Me Up

The Tailors new record Come Dig Me Up is out imminently. I’ve caught the band play a couple of times (once on that wonderful day where Wildbirds destroyed my heart with My Heart at The Social), and you’ll often see the lovely Adam Killip at gigs about town.

The album is nine songs long, and you can hear a few of those songs on The Tailors’ Myspace. Animal Humor is my favourite. The band launch the album at The Social on November 30th,  tickets are just £5 or you can get two free when you buy the album from Rough Trade. What a steal! It’s a lovely record, well worth picking up.

Peter Broderick: Freyr & Sunday Song

I’m in complete awe of Peter Broderick. There is something so amazing about his creative genius, it’s so wonderful. He just reels out all this beautiful material. Here are two things you should download:

A Simple Sunday Song: Just something he wheeled off one Sunay (as you do).

Freyr: This one is so sad. If you go here you can see a photo Peter took of an email he received from his father, with Peter holding a photo of Freyr, his cat, over it. The email reads that Freyr has been missing for a while and is gone. Peter writes as a caption to the photograph:

The Summer is over, and the Winter is moving in quickly, steeling our gloves and snatching animals along the way. You deserve a symphony. But you know me, I’m too lazy to write you a symphony. You never seemed to care much for music anyway. This is the best way I can say to you, Thank you for what you gave me.

In the song Peter re-arranges the words in the email. It’s so sad, but completely amazing that he can take such a heartbreaking thing and write a song about it right away. 

You should keep an eye on his Flickr for songs and sweet anecdotes from his tours. And of course, listen to his music here.

Bright Eyes

This fine evening I meandered over to Royal Festival Hall to watch Lisa Hannigan play. More on that later. But while I was waiting in my seat, all cosy and comfortable, a familiar tune came on the PA. It was Bright Eyes’ song First Day Of My Life from 2005’s I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.

Once upon a time, four years ago, I used to adore that record. Bright Eyes were one of my favourite bands. And I loved that song. I hadn’t listened to that song in a long time, and there was something really sweet about hearing it at The Royal Festival Hall, by chance. It made me go ‘awwwwwww’. I always think of records like friends, and it was like seeing an old friend who I haven’t seen in ages and giving them a giant hi-five and  hug. 

On the tube ride home I listened to some old Bright Eyes songs. It was lovely to revisit some of those songs. Awww.

Ghost Bees- Ashkelon

This video is wonderful:

More beautiful mando/guitar action from Canadian twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman. Their voices are amazing and watching them play live is a treat. That song they play is not from their album Tasseomancy, so, unless it’s an old one, it must be a new one. They tell stories in their songs. They have three songs on their Myspace, Sinai is my favourite.

Photographers- Romantic Burglar

Here is a sickeningly sweet song by a lovely band from Michigan called Photographers. They are a three piece and play very quiet and gentle songs.

The song is called Romantic Burglar and you can hear it on their Myspace. I like the line it’s all about the lighting y’know. YEAH, IT SO IS! It is it is it is!