Elba Sessions

I like when a song just makes your foot tap/head bob/neck jerk, right from the word go. Title track ‘Funny For A Girl’ on the EP by the same name from Cancel The Astronauts does just that. In fact, The Funny For A Girl EP seems to have a habit of doing this throughout all five tracks. It’s one of those albums that by the time you are halfway through, you are already looking forward to listening from the start again.

This is the second release by Edinburgh based Cancel The Astronauts and it follows on from the first, in pretty much the same vein of every songwriters favourite theme, unrequited love. Don’t worry though, I’m not recommending an EP filled with crooning love song’s a la James Blunt, what we have here is five slices of synthy indie pop who even when it looks like they are about to start crooning, (Standing Still – Track 4), they burst into a catchy chorus filled with all the musical hooks you could possibly need. The stand out tracks for me are probably the opening track ‘Funny For A Girl’ and ‘She Said She Loves Somebody Else’.

The EP is available now from their bandcamp page for a meagre £3 and if you can negotiate through bandcamp and find their other releases, you can download their previous EP for free! They also play King Tuts this Saturday with Elba recommended Astral Planes, Galleries and Casino Brag. Word on the street is that if you drop them an email, you can get a ticket for £4 and they might even throw in a download code for their EP for each ticket purchased. Boom!!

When it comes to liking music, I have many many weaknesses. It’s fair to say if one or several of the following things are present in any music that I listen to, there’s a chance I’m going to like it. These weaknesses may include, but are not restricted to, banjos, ukelele’s, pianos with strings and male/female duo’s. Bella Ruse falls into the latter.

I’d come across one of their songs a few months ago and their myspace page has sat in my browser’s ‘To Check Out’ folder ever since. I noticed that Peenko had a link to download an EP by them in his Friday Freebies last month and this was just the kick up the backside I needed to give them a proper listen, and I’m glad I did!

The Bella Ruse EP is a lovely collection of songs. The vocals are endearing and intimate and the acoustic guitar understated. Push On, the EP’s opener is probably the stand out track but every track is a winner. I’ve seen them described as folk jazz and whilst that description generally doesn’t grab me, it probably sums them up quite well. The folk comes through in the songwriting and the voice is very soulful and reminiscent of great jazz/soul singers like Ella Fitzgerald. There’s even a track in French, another one of my weaknesses!

If you’re curious, you can check them out at the below places!

Official Website
Bandcamp
MySpace

Well, what a bloody lovely album this is.

If I were old fashioned and still used a typewriter, there is every chance I’d have an waste-paper basket by my side overflowing with attempts to review this album. It’s not that it’s a complicated album, or that I couldn’t get my head around it’s sound. It’s simply because I wanted to do it justice. I’ll more than likely turn into some bumbling idiot yelling the odd brilliant, superb or magnificent in there for good measure, but for now, I’ll try my best to stay coherent.

‘Payday’ opens the album with a drone and echo sound which sounds somehow like a call to sit up and listen to what’s coming next. ‘Crank Resolutions’ is a mesmerisingly beautiful song with frantic synths and loops. There’s something mad but at the same time very settling about it. It’s a song I’ve repeatedly listened to over the last month and the effect is always the same, a knowing smile that this is one of the reasons why I love music.

The albums keeps pace with the industrial soundscape and title track ‘All Creatures Will Make Merry’ and then almost effortlessly shifts pace to the acoustic ‘Weather’ followed by the stripped back, ukelele, song from a long time ago sounding ‘One Day This’ll All Be Fields’.

I could go on, describing each track individually and how it switches from fast to slow, frenetic to soothing, loud to soft, but it might make it sound like a jumbled up and incoherent album which is what it is not. It’s effortless and graceful, it takes you other places and makes you excited about where it will go next.

And whilst many ‘last tracks’ can be utterly forgettable or skippable because the six minute gap for the hidden track is just not built for the i-pod generation, ‘A Fair Exchange’ a beautiful 72 second piano driven song, with strings which is a reflective and comforting way to end one of the best albums I’ve heard all year.

The album is released on the brilliant Song, By Toad Records on May 24th but special limited handmade copies are available, subject to availability, here and at Meursault shows. Talking of Meursault shows, this poster was too good not to stick on the blog. Even better that it looks like an amazing line up!

Fun Anxiety – A condition known to afflict members of rock combination group Kill The Captains, born from a sense that everyone is having fun without them. Symptoms include leaving conversations hanging because your neighbour’s conversation sounds more interesting, a pathological refusal to go to bed despite the fact that everyone else went to bed days ago, a phobia of clowns.
Related forms: Funmnesia

Today we welcome Armellodie’s southernmost batallion Kill The Captains to the Elba Sessions. Having just released their debut long player, Fun Anxiety, we caught up with front man and axe-wielder Leon for a few words.

Firstly, would you care to introduce the band?

Of course- I go by the name of Captain Carter, I am co-axe wielder and chief warbler. My fellow axe grinder and gnasher of teeth is Dr Pickavance. Captain Scarlett pounds the traps like his life depends on it, Bifidus Digestivum does the sub-sonic pulses and throbs recently filling in the clown sized shoes of his forbear Yoz Hughes.

Awful question, but, who are your main influences. Having seen you live, I’m guessing it’s varied throughout the band!?

We are a ramshackled pile up of the best of Kraut rock, post rock, Brighton rock, roll and rock. Love Slint, love My Bloody Valentine, love Kyuss, love Can, love Le Savy Fav, love seventies folkie stuff, love it love it love it.

You seem to be quite a busy band what with having your own studio and putting on monthly ‘Mutiny’ nights. Do you think more bands should get involved with taking a wider approach to their band i.e. putting on gigs for themselves etc…

If you can handle the extra stress and strain of putting on an event it can be massively rewarding. We started Mutiny quite simply because we felt there weren’t enough nights like it in Sheffield. When we go out for a night of live music we want to see something fresh, non-generic and exciting, and we knew there were lots of people in our city similarly like of mind and taste. So it was a no brainer really. One of the obvious key benefits is that you get to put yourself on the bill with bands that genuinely excite you, rather than being at the mercy of a promoter who might not share your taste in music or sense. And then there’s the general principle of the evening where we aim to make the nights as good experience as possible for the bands we put on- we’ll promote the ass off it, whip up a great atmosphere and, importantly, all profits are shared. It is criminal that too many top bands play without being paid their dues.

Has doing this helped you as a band?

Greatly- we’ve played with some incredible bands as a result and reached their audiences where potentially we might not have. As a result we’ve shared the bill with the the likes of Bilge Pump, Acoustic Ladyland, Fists, Wooderson, Corleone, Johnny Foreigner, and our amazing label mates Cuddly Shark and Le Reno Amps.

How did signing to Armellodie come about being that you are based in Sheffield and them in Glasgow?

It was a strange meeting of minds that came about in 2007. My old school friend was passing through Sheffield with his band Actress Hands co-touring with Le Reno Amps. We all hit it off, sank booze, chewed the metaphysical fat, exchanged musical tips. Al Nero of the Amps got in touch a few weeks later expressing an interest in putting out some records on his fledgeling Armellodie label. The rest they say is history. We couldn’t be happier. To be on the roster of bands that Al has put together is an absolute dream. I genuinely believe we’re on one of the best labels in the UK. Cuddly Shark, Super Adventure Club and the Amps all deserve to be massive.

The new album ‘Fun Anxiety’ was released on May 5th. Has it been a long time in the pipeline?

As we went for the DIY approach, recording it in our studio ourselves, it probably took us a bit longer to piece together than it should. But it was our aim to try and do something a bit different- an album lover’s album. Hopefully something that you want to listen to from the first track through to the last, in one sitting. We consciously avoided simply recording the live renditions of the tunes, instead looking at different ways of interpreting songs that we had got used to playing a certain way. Hence stuff like Lebanese has been transformed from its live thrashy origins into something more ethereal and stoner for the record.

It struck me when listening to the album that it was very different and very cleverly put together, do you have a different approach to songwriting than your average band would?

Each song is different. Some stuff is the result of jams that have been recorded, replicated, structured, recorded and restructured. Other times I’ll come to the band with a song that’s ¾ finished, we’ll hammer it out and see what direction we can pull it in. As a general rule, we try to avoid the conventional verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus route. But there is always something to be said about convention from time to time.

Does having your own studio help with developing the songs and how they eventually end up sounding on the record?

Absolutely. Our studio is a modest set up, but has served us fantastically well over the years as a recording and songwriting tool. For the most part, it’s instant feedback. If you’re working something out and unsure where to take it, recording and listening back is great for stimulating creativity, and making you look at the song more objectively. It’s also useful for documenting and logging jams, ensuring they’re not lost to the moment. Some of our best moments as a band have been born from recorded jams.

It is standard at Elba that we try to get some ‘local’ knowledge out of all the bands we speak to. Is there any bands that we should be looking out for either from Sheffield or that you’ve come across on your travels?

Loads – Wooderson are great band from Sheffield which we played with just the other night, Bilge Pump are awesome, hilarious and technically absurd, Bad Guys rock some serious ass and obviously our aforementioned label mates. Super Adventure Club have to be seen to be believed.

What does the rest of the year hold for KTC?

Well we’ve had a chocker year so far but after a gig with Clinic at the Harley in Sheffield in June, followed by the Peace in the Park festival we’ll take a short break from the gigs to return to the studio to record a new EP.

‘Fun Anxiety’ is out now on Armellodie Records and you can get your grubby paws on a copy here.

Not in Anyone’s Gang is a treat of an EP. Pop is something that we often turn our noses up at. However, where would we be without those key tracks that make you want to dance until you’ve worn a hole in the floor and sweat off the layers of make up and/or product applied before heading out to blissfully forget a whole lot of your worries and likely a whole lot of the night itself? Not only that, but really where would we now be without the punk-pop-ska insanity of (the never to be abbreviated unless you are happy to splutter M-M-a-t-Cuh-Cuh) Ming Ming and the Ching Chings?

The EP batters out the gate. It is impossible to not tap your foot to Season of Horrors; the spirit of indie disco will possess you. It provides an infectious opener with its non stop hooks, brass and steady building outro that teases and tinkles out. Secrets of Men maintains the spirit of the opening with a menacing bass that belongs in a dirty rockabilly song.

The EP moves on after smacking you in the face with their moodier tracks and onto lighter things. With Creepy Tales little vocal flourishes and a sort of silliness provided by playful guitar, running up and down the scales, hearken back to Madness more clearly than at any other point on the album.

Punch In The Face is verging on that cockney chimney sweep notion that developed somewhere in the new Millenia of indie music. As someone who detests the trend that had louts oom-cha-ing all over the place, its a decent offering. Not going absurdly over the top as a certain recent disbanded Scottish three piece did in running with a notion that tires easily.

But that little detour aside the EP retains its charm in its closing. Straighten Up! gets back to the bass driven momentum that got the five track racing and rounds it off nicely. The pulsing finisher is designed for closing a set. Electro pulse, cowbell, lasers – live, this would leave me drooling.

Super Adventure Club want to eat your brains. It is the only logical conclusion.

Exhibit A – Look at them!

Exhibit B: Their brain tenderizing, blood boiling, sophomore album Avoid Zombies:

Don’t believe the title and the awesome zombie themed launch. They are trying to trick you into a false sense of security!!! Run god-dammit, run!

Avoid Zombies opens with a Big bassy twang that, from the off, releases the full insanity of Super Adventure Club. Over the course of the album, it is apparent that they have perfected a controlled chaos in their work. There is constant shifts and jerks. You are unprepared for each development in every song. Especially the vocal coda of Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle. You’ll be left scratching your head because whilst you will be hugely thrown off kilter during your first listen, you will also at one and the same time love this jazz-pop-punk-indie-super-insanity.

Super Adventure Club are tuned into a musical genius that will leave you reeling. This is the main thrill of this band. They are unafraid to battle their way through anything. This effect peaks during Nosferatu and on current single SAC Attack. However, there are also moments to breathe during this album. The truly wonderful Pick Up Sticks settles into a more conventional structure. It’s light and though still of SAC’s signature jerky style, it has more of a foot tapping feel. Pointless Self-Indulgence too, fades the album out softly; on a new note.

Avoid Zombies! is released on Armellodie Records 05.04.2010 and the album launch is tonight (25.03.2010) in the Captain’s Rest.

Another week begins and if you get paid at the end of the month you may have a small stack of notes or coins burning a hole in your pocket this week. Luckily there are a couple of places that your pennies could be spent wisely and there is one in particular I would like to point your attention to. Anyone who follows me on Twitter will be aware of my delight and anticipation regarding Joanna Newsom’s new album Have One On Me; released today.

The truth is the one thing I can never get enough of is Joanna Newsom. This triple CD release is really something that will satisfy the itch that has built for anyone else following the over-listening to previous bar setting album Ys. The descriptor nu-folk was coined for the roots movement around the beginning of Miss Newsom’s step up into the wider musical consciousness. Whilst this unfortunate terminology should fill us all with loathing, if it will persuade potential listeners to let go of the dusty connotations and negative perceptions people have of the ‘genre’ to just give an artist of this quality attention, it is most certainly welcomed. The album was available to stream on a local US radio station’s website prior to its release and I can confirm that after a complete and attentive listen is that I will not be content until I have this album grasped in my hands today.

Album opener Easy is a good measure of the album. Here the piano dominates and we are greeted with a familiar rich orchestral arrangement. Newsom’s voice leaps as frequently and lightly as the woodwind on the track. Particularly affecting is the point in each little song-trail where the percussion bounds in and, much like that of previous LP Ys, by this point you will have given yourself entirely to this journey. One of the beauties of Have One On Me is the range of the work. It easily flows due to the distinctive style of the artist but through every possible route that can be taken. It shows range and a maturity that is just getting more and more honed with time. Less are the wild fantasies spun in some of the more whimsical moments of Newsom’s catalogue. This definitely allows for a greater accessibility to her music.

Moments like Baby Birch are astonishing. In this case the melodic beginnings are pure and gospel tinged whilst Joanna Newsom’s voice is clear and perfect. Over the course of the song more traditional folk based arrangement and bold celtic tones grow . I think this is the first time I’ve found this style executed so well, without resorting to hyper cliché. On A Good Day serves as a perfect coda to Baby Birch. A short and sad completion to the tale that was just weaved. Putting an end to the sorrow and sentimental conclusion to the previous track.

In California is succinct and simpler in manner, leaning more towards a recognisable love song. It is the clever peppering of accompaniment that will win you over here. Double bass scratchings and drums providing a rumble of thunder amongst the delicate lyricism, the strings and finally the much loved harp. You will be filled with warmth, longing and passion by the end of the nigh on nine minutes.

Songs like Good Intentions Paving Company and ’81, which were been leaked prior to the album, fit perfectly in this huge offering. Despite their brilliance they in no way overshadow the work as so often happens. Instead it is pleasant to discover that these tracks were merely another little stop on this vast map of work.

It’s very difficult not to use travelling or literally description to any of Joanna Newsom’s work. The sheer length, depth and richness of the music and lyrics is nothing short of epic. It is pure escapism. It is classic. It is rare that an album like this comes along. In an age where instant access and carelessness towards the sanctity of an entire work are rarely seen I encourage to you to pay respect to the work that this artist has presented and pick up a copy of Have One On Me. It’ll be putting it back down that will be the greater challenge.

The Elba Sessions podcast has been running since July this year and we have been blogging since September so we were pretty honoured to be asked by Peenko to throw our tuppence worth into what is now affectionately known as The Scottish BAMS or The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites Award 2009, to give it it’s proper title. The Phantom Band’s Checkmate Savage took the honours and the Top 20 was packed with plenty of good choices, with a large amount of Scottish talent being represented.

Personally I struggled a bit, not to choose the ten so much, but more to order it from 10 to 1. Looking back at my choices, I’ll stick with my Number 1 and possibly the first few places but to be honest, if any of my top 10 were at number 1, I’d have no complaints at all. Here is how Stephen, Chris and myself voted…

(note: Stephen ducks out slightly by nominating an unreleased album, but we’ll let him off for that and you’ll notice I favoured counting down from 10 to 1, to build suspense and all, wheras my fellow amigos went straight in with a number 1!)

Phil Elba

10. Cuddly Shark – Cuddly Shark
9.Le Reno Amps – Tear It Open
8.Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream
7.The Cinematics – Love and Terror
6. Brakes – Touchdown
5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
2. Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage
1. Titus Andronicus – The Airing of Grievances

Stephen Elba

1. De Rosa – Prevention
2. My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances.
3. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career.
4. Idlewild – Post Electric Blues.
5. Conor Mason – When its Over
6. Le Reno Amps – Tear it Open
7. LAU – Arc Light
8. bat for lashes – two Suns
9. Daniel Wylie – Fake your own death (wont be released until 2010 but i have heard the tracks and they are ace!)
10. Cuddly Shark – Cuddly Shark

Chris Elba

1. Wilco – Wilco (the album)
2. Richmond Fontaine – We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
5. De Rosa – Prevention
6. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
7. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
8. The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
9. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
10. Le Reno Amps – Tear It Open

I was pretty pleased that 4 of mine were included in the Top 20 and having seen the spreadsheet where the maths was done, a couple just missed out. I think The Phantom Band were worthy winners though, being voted for by predominantly scottish blogs and writers it’s fitting that a Scottish band should win it, who would have doubted that one would!

And here’s how the masses voted!

1. The Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage (61)
2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (54)
3. De Rosa – Prevention (53)
4. King Creosote – Flick the V’s (51)
5. Withered Hand – Good News (45)
6. The Twilight Sad – Forget The Night Ahead (43)
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls (40)
8. Beerjacket – Animosity (38)
9. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (32)
9. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career (32)
11. My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances (28)
11. Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous (28)
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – s/t (25)
14. You Already Know – s/t (24)
14. Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part (24)
16. The XX – s/t (23)
17. The Antlers – Hospice (21)
18. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE (19)
18. And So I Watch You From Afar (19)
20. Wilco – The Album (18)

You can praise/blame/thank the following for their input!

17 Seconds, AyeTunes, Dear Scotland, Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Popcop, Products of a Gaseous Brain, Song By Toad, The Daily Growl, The Spill, The Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain and Under the Radar.

And once again, well done to Peenko for organising all of this!

As I sit here writing this on a Sunday morning, I now realise that there is every chance that my day may go in a completely different direction than I had intended. Yesterday a lazy Sunday sounded perfect and even as I woke up this morning and sleepily turned on my laptop this was the only option. However, as I give Cuddly Shark’s eponymous debut album another listen, I realise that I’m now fully awake and ready to get out the traps like a greyhound waiting to chase the hare.

Cuddly Shark are a band (two guys, one girl) hailing from Elgin in the north of Scotland, Elgin-ites if you will. After moving to ‘the’ hot bed of music that is Glasgow, things seem to be going rather grand for the Shark. Several good live reviews and well received singles later, they’ve turned themselves to making an album. Recorded by Ross McGowan (Dananananaykroyd, We Are the Physics) and Scott Maple (Le Reno Amps), the pedigree is certainly impressive and the album doesn’t disappoint.

‘Bowl of Cherries‘ kicks of the album and is the perfect opener, catchy riff and screaming vocals, it pretty much sets the tone for the next 34 minutes. Hurtling on through singles ‘Woody Woodpecker‘ and ‘The Punisher of IV30‘ (referring to the postcode where the band grew up), the album takes a sinister twist with the soft then loud, but always sinister, ‘Mannybix‘. Indeed, the album only partially lets up for ol’ travelling tune ‘Whiteoaks‘ and the toe tapping cover of Hoyt Axton’s ‘Boney Fingers‘ before it is launched back into Shark-ville with the riff heavy ‘12 Months‘, a nice ditty about abstention. This is followed by a 51 second rant aimed at those (well, one person in particular) who really should have stuck to acting, well maybe not even that, ‘Jamie Foxx On Jools Holland‘. I’d tell you the one and only lyric in the song but that might spoil it for you. The album closes with one of my album standouts ‘Instru-Mentalist‘ and a song that people who get bees in their bonnets could have a field day with, ‘Shakey Baby‘. It carries the unforgettable singalong chorus “see the lady with the baby, grab the baby, hold the baby, shake the baby, jelly baby, got me a syndrome!”.

It’s a breakneck, pedal-to-the-metal 34 minutes but well worth the listen, or several listens in my case. Cuddly Shark are uncategorisable, flitting from the pop punk sensibilities of Weezer, through the brash sound of Fugazi and even taking a jaunt through hillbilly rock, Cuddly Shark take you to a point where you just can’t really make comparisons, they are truly a one off and a one off that it is worth taking the time to enjoy.

The album is out NOW on cool new Scottish indie label Armellodie.

Cuddly Shark play Captain’s Rest (Glasgow) tommorrow (16th Nov) for their album launch party where they will be joined by the fantastic Palace Ballet and The Elvis Suicide. Doors 8pm, £4.

For more news and info on January’s mini Scottish tour check out www.cuddlyshark.co.uk