new pants yell! song

At some point about 18 months ago you may have heard me say something along the lines of "Pants Yell!, they're nothing special". Then I suddenly got hooked and pretty much listened to nothing but them.

So now I can sit here in envy of all those lucky lucky people in Boston who get to go see them this weekend play with Still Flyin' and hear all the songs from their new record (which I thought was going to be called Jessica Griffin but isn't)

But at least while I'm sitting I can listen to 'Cold Hands' the first song to be streaming on their myspace. Get there

radio going live

My neglect of this thing is likely to continue into the near future - well until I finish my uni stuff at the end of October. But in the mean time three exciting peices of news.

1) 'best band in the world' The Gladeyes are releasing their first "proper" album in November and doing a wee national tour.

2) everyone loves Wildwood Lights. After spending a forever on the top of bfm's top ten you can now listen to 'Town and Country' on their myspace. But you should buy the EP too.

3) and

Simply Thrilled is going 'live' in our first little club night. Don't know how the world feels about just stealing book covers to make posters, hopefully I won't be laughed at.

Simply Thrilled 01 Aug

As I'm picking songs to play for this week's radio a show I should really post last weeks. This week's show will probably be the first time in a while I won't play anything from the Summer Cats' album. The internet seems to be suitably excited about it, which is entirely deserved - here's more info. But I should jet so here's a link to last week's show, and for those who simply want to critique I'll put the playlist in the comments.

Simply Thrilled 01.08.09

oh and everyone should buy the Wildwood Lights EP. They're just about the best thing ever - more on them later.

A Declaration

General consensus seems to be that the Felt DVD A Declaration is terrible. For the most part I agree, filmed on a hand held camera from the balcony at ULU, with the sound just coming from the camera microphone it sits uncomfortably with the rest of Felt's back catalogue. It goes against so much of the image Lawrence went to such pains to manufacture I find it hard to believe he endorsed its release. Yet it's not the poor quality of the recording that interests me, it's the uneasy feeling that even if the recording was better quality, even if I was there, I still wouldn't enjoy it that much. They simply don't seem that good. For someone who spent of few of his teenage years and most of his adult years thinking Felt achieved a kind of untouchable perfection this is something of a revelation. Yet the feeling that Felt were just a band like any other fills me not with disillusionment but, rather, the optimistic feeling that all the new bands I love and follow are just as great as those of the eighties canon. Pedestals are boring and pointless and the more cultural artifacts I can find that demolish those bands aura of mystery and flawlessness the happier I'll be.


As an aside am I wrong to love this more than any other Felt video accompaniment I've seen.

I Wonder Who We Are

There's something about 'I Wonder Who We Are', the first 'single' from the upcoming The Clientele album, that reminds me of Belle and Sebastian's 'Your Cover's Blown'. Well the beginning of it anyway. But then I remember when I first heard 'Your Cover's Blown' it somehow reminded me of 'Rip It Up'. Anyway it's great stuff. Happily The Clientele seem to have resisted any kind of career narrative, it doesn't seem to me like they're tied any kind of bland 'maturity' trajectory. Maybe they're not recording vocals through bass amps anymore, but they're certainly not aiming for any mainstream crossover; or if they are they're going the wrong way about it. Have a listen and see what you think. And admire the beautiful cover art, reminds me of the Marble Arch releases, maybe that's the point.

I Wonder Who We Are

Some Velvet Painting

I've had a wealth of stuff to post about recently, but been struggling get myself to write about. So let me just say now The Cavalcade are great and so is the Liechtenstein album. They deserve more effort than this and hopefully I will do something soon. Although the most exciting thing of all has been Ed Cake's new album under the moniker Pie Warmer - hopefully this one gets promoted big time.

Speaking of promotion; my motivation for posting now is to mention that some friends and I now have a semi permanent radio show on Auckland's Fleet Fm on Saturday evening from 9 till 11, which I think is currently 10am-12pm Saturday morning in the UK. So you can listen online, or I will be posting a recording of most of the show each week here. So just click this to hear last week's one.

second hand bookshop's greatest hits

Blogging on the job may feel mildly illicit, but when i'm trapped behind a counter all day it's one of the few things I can do.

So what's been playing in the shop today? Cause Co-Motion's Because Because Because is pretty much coolest record out right now, which is fairly predictable since Cause Co-Motion are pretty much the coolest band around right now. If only the rest of the world will work it out. Recorded in a single day at Gary Olsen's place it's much the same as their singles, which Slumberland lovingly compiled last year. The most obvious departure is the less frantic 'You Lose', which is the only song to extend over the two minute mark and is also available for free download from the Slumberland site. I'm guessing the band may start to face a little criticism for venturing down a bit of a stylistic dead end, but I think that's garbage. I imagine Beat Happening or The Pastels could have faced the same criticism twenty five years ago and I feel Cause Co-Motion not having an obvious "maturity" path set in front of them only makes it more exciting.

But its not really bookshop music is it? I gave it a blast when I opened up, but since the pace is picked up a bit I've been pretty much locked on The Castaway Stones lone album 'Make Love To You'. I'm on my fourth listen of the day and I can't believe that after years of loving both Pam Berry and The Saturday People I've never given this record much attention. Maybe its just for today and I won't feel the same tomorrow, but right now this sounds like the dreamiest, catchiest, mostly beautiful pop imaginable. Furthermore (oh god I've been writing too many essays recently), I think it's the best I've ever heard Pam's voice, and yeah I realise that's a pretty big claim. I also realise the album is out of print and pretty tough to find - so I may have to upload it when I get home.