Review: The Allotment at The Betsey Trotwood

Is it bad to review a show I put on (with my friend Lynn)? NO. And thus, I will review it in a completely un-biased way… or something. 

So! The month between this Allotment show and the last one just flew by. People seem to really enjoy Allotment shows and say nice things about it, which obviously makes Lynn and I very happy and proud. All the bands played wonderfully and it was lovely. Brooke did a cover of Poetry In Motion, The Dufflefolks and The Momeraths were brilliant also. Alessi headlined and she was amazing as ever. She played lots of new songs and it was a delight to have her play for us. She’s something truly special and wonderful, amazing person and musician. 

An all round win. Watch the Allotment blog too.

Review: John Vanderslice at Pure Groove

What a lovely lunch time instore from the wonderful John Vanderslice. I’ve been a fan of Emerald City for a while, but I’ve not heard any of his other material. He played a nice mix of songs, explaining that he’s trying not to duplicate setlists. 

From Emerald City he played Time To Go, and my favourite, Numbered Lithograph. I love that song and it was such a treat to hear him play it live. His band members didn’t have their instruments, so it was a solo set. John sings with alot of animation and was very sweet and charming and grateful for the audience for attending.

I definately feel it’s well worth looking up his new album and delving deeper into his older material. 

If you want to hear that wonderful song that I adore, Numbered Lithograph, he played it for La Blogotheque, which you can watch here. 

Review: Choir of Young Believers at The Garage

After the Wave Pictures’ set at Union Chapel and a teeny tiny bit of Laura Marling I dashed up the road to The Garage to catch the Danish, wonderful, Choir Of Young Believers. I saw them a year ago at the Cargo, and again in February this year… I also fell a bit (well, a lot) in love with Chimes & Bells, a band similar but led by COYB cellist extraordinaire Caecilie Trier. It was lovely to catch them playing again, they play with alot of energy and their songs have a lot of force and sound very rich. Have a listen to them here, so glad I went along to catch them. If you want to hear Chimes and Bells (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) here they are too.

That photo is from when I saw them at Rough Trade. The Garage’s lights were HORRIFIC. A plain wash of blue. Not only a pain for photos, but just plain rubbish to look at too. Dark and blue. Nice. 

Review: Daniel Johnston at Union Chapel

A truly heartwarming show from a living legend. On Monday I popped along to my favourite venue, Union Chapel, to catch a headline show from Daniel Johnston.

First were Wave Pictures, who, miraculously, I have managed to have never seen before. I really enjoyed their set, it was fun and light hearted and had a few special guests including Stanley Brinks. Have a listen to them here.

Then it was Laura Marling. She seemed more confident than the last time I saw her (back in February). I stayed for the first couple of songs, but then headed down the road for a different gig (Choir of Young Believers!) before heading back to catch Daniel Johnston.

He played a pretty lengthy set. It was all straight from the heart, there was such a warm atmosphere. Daniel was joined by Guillemots and the Wave Pictures as backing bands. He played lots of his most well known songs, including three (three!) Beatles covers. His in between song chat was sweet and endearing and it really touched my heart to watch him play. So much soul power and feeling, it was a really beautiful show. He returned for an encore of the wonderful True Love Will Find You In The End. It was a really special show and I would definately say to disregard any reservations about seeing Daniel Johnston live and go if you get the chance.

Have a listen and watch his beautiful Black Cab Session song here.

Review: Grizzly Bear + St. Vincent at Barbican

Hard to describe this show. The second orchestra show of the week at the Barbican, booked well in advance… it was a pretty special event. I had a front row ticket, and being so close to the stage it felt almost as if you were actually on the stage with the bands; you could sense the giant cavernous space behind you and the hundreds of seated fans eagerly waiting a performance from one of the most hyped bands of the year.

But first, St. Vincent (who, truth be told, I was more excited about). I had seen Annie & co three times previously this year, each time she was brilliant. This time she was playing a strange, stripped down set – just her and violinist Daniel Hart. It was enjoyable as ever, being such a big fan of hers I was perhaps bound to enjoy it. However, I think at times the set drifted off course and was not as exciting and heart racing as I had hoped (her previous shows were truly stunning). She re-arranged the songs and played around with the guitar and vocal effects, with lots of looping.

They opened with Marry Me and Jesus Saves, I Spend. The tempo was slowed down for both, and gone was the fast paced rush of Actor Out Of Work, replaced with a careful, slow plod. It was nice; Annie has a beautiful voice and it’s lovely to hear each word annunciated so carefully and clearly, but I think the audience (particularly those who had not seen her before) would have been more ‘wowed’ by a faster pace, more rockin’ rendition. The duo also played Save Me From What I Want and The Party, both played in a down-tempo way. The looping and effects are brilliant, and when Annie was looping her voice at the end of The Party it really was breathtaking, she has a stunning voice. She also played new song Oh My God (also slow) and ended with What Me Worry? (also slow). Maybe I just was in the mood for a pulsing, fast paced show- which is why Marrow was clearly the set highlight. She kept it fast and exciting, and stayed largely faithful to the recorded version, and it was absolutely brilliant. I perhaps wished she had played songs like Your Lips Are Red, Paris Is Burning or Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood. She didn’t have the dual mic set up that I adore. I enjoyed her set but it was perhaps the mind blowing goodness of the full band shows I had seen a couple of months ago that made this set pale slightly in comparison. It wasn’t bad by far- Annie’s voice is amazing and her guitar skills are excellent, just I was perhaps expecting more. Nonetheless, she is one of my favourite live acts of the year and Actor is one of my favourite records of the year.

Okay, on to Grizzly Bear. They’ve released Veckatimest this year, heralded by many as ‘record of the year’ worthy. I think it’s great but perhaps prefer Yellow House overall, though Two Weeks is undeniably a ridiculously brilliant, amazing song. The London Symphony Orchestra filled the stage, also decorated with jars of hanging light, that brought an eerie beauty to Barbican (fittingly- it was Halloween). They opened with Easier from Yellow House. The sound quality was great and all the parts the orchestra added were great. I enjoyed Two Weeks, played just with the band. There’s not much I feel I can say. It was an enjoyable set, they were very good- but somehow I left feeling underwhelmed. It was missing the ‘fun’ factor and felt very going-through-the motions. Perhaps read this Times Online review- it reflects my reviews exactly in a far more articulate way (the ultimate in lazy reviewing: link to another review). Perhaps high expectations is the key… if you go to a show expecting to have your mind blown disappointment is much easier than when you go to a show with no real hopes. 

Review: Bandstand Busking

This particular busk ushered in a departure from the warm, sunny busks we’d enjoyed from April, and welcomed the typically menacing grey skies of November in London. It wasn’t all that bad really; the autumn leaves were beautiful. It also marked a year since I first enjoyed the wonders of Bandstand Busking- hurrah!

First to busk was Sleeping States. It was Markland playing alone. I’ve seen him play a few times throughout the year, the first was solo at the Borderline with many a loop technique, and more recently with a band at the Queen Elizabeth hall and the Bath House. He played an acoustic guitar and it was an enjoyable performance.

Next was Glaswegians The Twilight Sad. I have to admit, I’m not really a fan… which made enjoying their set a very welcome surprise. They played as a duo, acoustic guitar and vocals. The singer belted his vocals out and his voice echoed round the bandstand. Very nice.

The videos will be up on Bandstand Busking. Keep an ear out!

Beach House: Teen Dream

This evening I had the pleasure of heading to The Macbeth on Hoxton Street to hear the new Beach House record Teen Dream. The album is done and ready to go, and Bella Union kindly hosted an album playback a full three months in advance of the release date.

I was excited, obviously. There were free drinks and postcards with the track listings on. I decided to draw smiley faces by the songs that I thought were good. By the end there were smiley faces by every single track; the album is superb. Much like Devotion, I think that it’s the type of record that rewards repeated listens, and I can’t wait to own the album and sit with it on repeat.

The album opens with, my personal favourite, Zebra. It’s gorgeous, completely-swoon worthy. It feels warm and familiar (the new material isn’t much of a departure from the old songs) and is quite breathtaking. Victoria’s voice is rich, and so powerful. I made notes on the album, but, as with whenever I am given a pen and paper, it’s mostly doodles and the odd word. For Zebra I drew a Zebra (see what I did there?) and wrote ‘AMAZING WOW WOW WOW WOW’. It is exactly that. The song is superb and I can’t think of any way it could be any better. The album has the same dreamy feel as with all of Beach House’s material.

The slide guitar, egg shakers and tambourine… your foot taps along for the whole record. In fact, I really have no idea how long the album is… it just washes over you and is done in no time. Perhaps I should have taken better notes. For track two, Silver Soul, I wrote ‘Swoon’ and ‘the slide guitar is lovely. Track three is Norway, for which I wrote: ‘egg shaker is nice. Victoria’s voice is A-MAZING’. Victoria has a wonderful voice, both live and on record. It’s spot on. Track four was another giant favourite, as soon as I get the album and listen to Zebra on repeat, next up I’m listening to Walk In The Park on repeat. There’s this one part where Victoria sings this line that goes ‘in a matter of time‘. The way she sings it gives you chills, her voice just rices and it is completely brilliant.

Next is a re-working of 2008’s single Used To Be. It’s not too dissimilar, apart from the ending has changed. They’ve got rid of the even if I tried so hard/we could wait until the summer lyrical overlap. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this, because I think the song was perfect to begin with, but nonetheless I enjoyed the song very much. Lover of Mine is track six, I wrote ‘mmm foot tappy’ and drew a foot. For the next track, Better Time, I put ‘nice intro, nice guitar, the ending is brilliant’ and also noted ‘they did this one at Cargo!!!!!!!!!!!!’. Last December I saw the band at Cargo and this was the only new song they played, which I loved. I was hoping to hear it again at Union Chapel but they didn’t play it; I’m glad it made it on to the album.

The next two tracks, 10 Mile Stereo and Real Love are both lovely but I definately feel like they could be Teen Dream’s Turtle Island; songs that I will come to love hugely over time. I don’t know why, but I was never grabbed by Turtle Island, but then it just twigged that it was absolutely brilliant and became one of my favourites from Devotion.

The album closer, Take Care, is another highlight. The epic drums, and Victoria’s voice as she sings ‘I‘ll take care of you/if you ask me to‘ is so beautiful. Absolutely wonderful. Gush gush gush.

And there you have it: one of the best records of 2010, no doubt. The production is perfect, the songs are great… it’s definately a grower. I’ve always found that to be the way with Beach House, the more you listen, the more you love. I’ve had a constantly rotating chart of favourite songs, because every song has so much richness that you can find new parts to love, which give new reasons to listen on repeat.

Youtube is kind. You can watch Take Care being performed here, and check out the tag-team of brilliance Zebra and Walk In The Park here.

Also, I just drafted my list of my favourite 40 live acts of the year. Beach House are obviously there. This band are brilliant. The album is out over here on January 25th via Bella Union.  I can’t wait.

Review: recent gigs

Oh man! I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to blog properly. Here are some things I’ve been to lately and a few thoughts:

Crocodiles @ Pure Groove: Noisy.

Mariner’s Children + Thee Single Spy @ Cafe OTO: Mariner’s Children were really hindered by a shockingly incompetent sound guy. It was terrible. Thee Single Spy are a band I’d never seen and were enjoyable.

Clues @ Rough Trade: Really enjoyed their set, worth investigating this band (billed everywhere as ‘featuring ex-Arcade Fire and Islands members).

Oxjam Kilburn: Really lovely little festival along the high road in Kilburn.

Our Brother The Native + Zun Zun Egui @ Luminaire: Loud.

Emerging Proms @ Roundhouse Studios: The sound at this venue was superb! A brilliant set from Broadcast 2000. They have such a great percussion setup, and were cheerful and endearing to watch. Fun set.

Efterklang @ Barbican: Epic! With the Britten Sinfonia orchestra.

There we go, up to date. I will try to be better next week. My to-do list is crazily long. Good job I don’t have a ‘proper’ day job.

Photo is of Efterklang at the Barbican.

Review: Tom Brosseau at The Windmill

I was too lazy to take photographs. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to carry a heavy camera and lenses across from North London to South London, you know? So I drew a picture instead.

This was my second time catching Tom Brosseau. I’ve had Cavalier for ages, and this year he released a new record, Posthumous Success. I listened to it alot while I was doing some work for FatCat/One Little Indian earlier this year.

Tom is quite tall, he looks a bit like a cowboy, which make his modern day pop culture references all the more amusing. He’s very charming. He had drank a little too much this particular night and apologetically kept reaching for his water. He played songs from the newest record such as Favourite Colour Blue (which drew laughs from the audience for the line about dreaming about Dave Grohl) and You Don’t Know My Friends. 

An extra treat was instore. Tom invited his friend, Portland singer Shelley Short, to sing with him. The harmonies in Boothill were absolutely gorgeous, and as the song trailed into Been True it got even more wonderful. Been True is one of my favourite songs of the year and the fuller sound brought by Shelley’s sweet voice, which worked perfectly with Tom’s, was delightful. 

They played a couple more on the stage, including the lovely New Heights, before departing to the middle of the audience. “I just like playing acoustic” Tom explains. I LIKE YOU PLAYING ACOUSTIC TOO, TOM! It was brilliant. First he and Shelley covered Tom Waits’ Innocent When You Dream. Tom’s soft, charming voice couldn’t have been much further from Mr Waits’. I loved the cover. They ended with Kiss My Lips from Cavalier. Shelley and Tom had great chemistry performing together and their voices mingled well. He did an encore alone, in the audience again, employing use of the harmonica.

Wonderful show. Listen to Tom Brosseau and investigate Shelley Short.

Oh, oops. I forgot to mention that the support act, Lay Low, was absolutely brilliant. She’s from Iceland and played with a slide guitar/banjo/second guitar player and it was lovely. Her songs are very sweet and she has a great voice. Listen to her too.

Review: Soap&Skin at the Purcell Rooms

What an absolutely incredible, wonderfully dark, astounding, BRILLIANT show. Gush gush gush. 

The Purcell Rooms in the Southbank Centre was a well suited venue for the show. It was small and intimate, seated, and had good lighting/smoke capabilities and sound. 

19 year old Anja Plaschg is so completely fascinating. She has that air of mystery that reminds me of Karin from The Knife/Fever Ray. During the course of the show she says barely anything. I kind of imagine her living in an Austrian castle guarded by wolves that shoot lightning from their eyes. Anyway…

It was Anja alone, playing the beautiful Steinway piano with lillies and incense decorating the stage. It was dark apart from the white spotlight on her, and some eerie smoke being blown around. She has such a beautiful voice and sings with so much intensity. The piano parts are gorgeous and the strings and sound effects (controlled by Anja via Macbook) are so atmospheric and captivating. She eased into the show. It gradually got more and more intense. Thanantos was mind blowing. The keys and the vocals just crash over you. She played some new songs which sounded magnificent. Spiracle was as wonderful as I had hoped, with the passionate, haunting shreiking and the painful cries of ‘please help me, please help me, please help me’

I completely lost track of time during the show. Perhaps it was two thirds of the way through the performance when all the lights went out. It was completely dark. Anja was wearing black. She came to the edge of the stage and jumped down into the front row, right in front of me. Suddenly the lights turned red and she walked along the front row, hopped back on stage and began shaking the smoke machine before wandering through the seated audience shouting and howling. 

Then, returning to the piano as if nothing happened, she continued to play. I had a giant grin on my face; it was genius. She was magnificent. It was so special and… so dark! Haunting. Just listening to the lyrics alone, it’s all pretty dark and harrowing. There’s a jarring dichotomy between the gorgeous, innocent-sounding piano and her vocals, and the frightening lyrics and theatrics.

She ended the set coming to centre stage and singing into the mic. The sounds completely envelop you. It’s hypnotic and enchanting. She left the stage to huge cheers and returned through the curtain for an a’cappella encore in German. Taking a low bow and curtsey she disappears again.

An absolutely stunning show. An extremely talented performer, there wasn’t a single lull in the set. Go see her perform if you get the chance. Lovetune For Vacuum is one of my favourite records of the year… and I suspect there’ll be much more greatness yet to come from  Anja Plaschg.