All the good things I've heard since starting to commute again

Started a new job and have a commute again so that means back to RadMac on Radio 6!  I'm very pleased, only downer is that their daily show is supposed to end and they'll move to weekends some time soon.  But, that's what the iPlayer is for.  But honestly, thanks God for RadMac.  I'll start to think I'm over music, then listen to them and get into it all over again.  Thanks guys!  Thanks the BBC!  Thanks Blighty for your eclectic radio offerings and refusal to conform to commercial viability!! 

Just going to basically post tracks without a lot of commentary as time is limited.  Dev Hynes seems like a prolific character; I remember hearing about Test Icicles when they first came around some time in the last decade, but never checked them out.  I will now though, cos I like this track by Hynes aka Blood Orange:



I've featured BC Camplight on this blog before.  Don't know tons about him/them, but I do know the main songwriter is an American who's now based in the UK (Manchester?) -- always intriguing.  This track appeals due to it's dissonant sounds and it's 80's vibes.  There are at least two 80's tracks it reminds me of, but I can't quite put my finger on either of them. 



Just read a bit about my boy BC and turns out he's an American who sees himself as a Manc who got deported from the UK a couple of years ago and ended up living in his parents' basement, depressed.  He then got EU citizenship via Italian grandparents, only for the UK to vote for Brexit!  His latest album, Deportation Blues touches upon this.  See?  Intriguing. 

Gwenno is Welsh and does electronic music.  What more do you need to know??  Ok, this is off her second album, which is in Cornish, and she used to be in subversive indie throwback girl group the Pipettes. 



I'm almost done, but I'm not done.  Actually I'm only halfway through.  New Gorillaz track Tranz, I like it.  Surprised the band came out with album so quickly after the last one. 



I thought this was a remix of the Fall, but it was just them!  Can't take Mark E Smith for granted, or at least you shouldn't've, when he was alive.  People probably knew that though.



Never listened to a lot of Dinosaur Jr, which is a shame really, what I've heard I've liked.  Them, Sebadoh, and Pavement -- must make time one of these days.  Or one of these commutes. 

I heard it on the radio

Just a great block of radio programming today by Steve Lamacq, who played three songs that are new to me and one that I'd not really concentrated on.  All are worth talking about so read on, reader, read on.

First up, a new track from Damon Albarn.  I've always been a fan of his voice and have been quite amazed by the sheer scale of his musical output.  He's been in the business for well over twenty years, has worked with loads of different musicians on many different projects, to the point that now Blur just seem like one project out of many.  Despite that, the album that comes out at the end of this month, Everyday Robots, is his first solo one, and I have to say I've liked what I've heard so far.  This song is a good example of how Albarn is able to be musically quite diverse -- the only giveaway that it's a track by him is his voice, otherwise musically it's not obviously a Damon Albarn song, cos he doesn't necessarily have a signature sound (..., well that is admittedly debatable, but I'm not going to go into it now).  Check it!  And if you follow the link above to his website you can see the quite trippy video to the song Everyday Robots.



Brian Eno and Karl Hyde (of Underworld) are going to release a collaborative album next month called Someday World.  Kind of an exciting partnership, maybe, or it could be complete rubbish, but I do like the song I heard today.  I don't really hear the Eno part of it, but I like that it's quite poppy and happy, and not the kind of thing I'd expect from Karl Hyde, who usually seems to be a bit darker and weirder in his work.  I like his singing, reminds me a bit of the guy from Doves (who's also just released a solo album):



Next tune is by a band I don't know too much about, the Hosts.  Sadly they only have a facebook page and there's not much info on there that I can see.  I do like this song though; I usually don't like music that is too much of a throwback or pastiche, but I enjoyed this, I think because of it's enthusiasm.  Seems like Richard Hawley has been involved in producing them (not surprising if you listen and compare to this track of his), and their debut album came out in February of this year.



Lastly, an enjoyable Pavement track.  Gotta say, there's something about hearing these songs on the radio, while doing whatever else, that cannot be recreated by searching for and listening to them individually on the web.  I really like radio, including the DJ banter -- sometimes the DJ banter is better than the music!  I'm so glad that the internet means I can stay connected to good radio.

Tickled

Time for a long overdue post.  Sorry about the lack of words, but I've been hearing things here and there that I've enjoyed in one way or another and I thought the least I can do is compile them all on our dear old blog.  So that's what I'll do!

On Radio 6 this morning I heard this and found it rather pleasant:

I wasn't a Pavement fan when they were around but I was lucky enough to see them for free at the Virgin Freefest a couple of years go and liked them.  I like this too, it's got a nice warm indie sound to it.  And so does the video, particularly the end of it.

I also heard this on the radio today and it seemed very familiar, particularly the instrumental breakdown.  Not sure where I've heard it before, I feel like it's been sampled.  And if you're sick of Christmas music, my apologies, but this isn't really what you'll hear playing at the mall now is it?

Sorry about the video but, you know, just don't watch it -- most of the time music is better without visuals anyway.

And now, aah yes, Arctic Monkeys, I'm into them right now.  I just saw them play three songs on Jools Holland and they were all good!  Plus the band have a good vibe about them, particularly Alex Turner, the man has some snake hips nowadays.  They're full of confidence, which makes for good performances.  I'd like to see them live but for some reason they're skipping DC and playing Richmond, VA only -- my guess is cos they must have hit this place up when they toured with the Black Keys.  Turn this up (no really, the sound isn't very good in this video) and do watch the video:


Burial's got a new EP coming out, you can hear it all online:
http://www.avclub.com/article/burials-new-rival-dealer-ep-is-already-streaming-o-106418
I'll have to give the tracks a few more listens but... I don't know if they're for me.  I remember when I first heard of Burial in 2007 (that was thanks to the Boston Phoenix, where I also heard of Ellen Allien and Dixon, thanks to their CD reviews; Dixon's Body Language mix is well worth a listen, and I went on to see Ellen Allien in NYC).  At that time it was still really hard to look up and hear his music -- I think it was months before his first CD showed up for sale online at a reasonable price.  Now his new EP is news for basically every music site and blog on the web, including the AV Club!  Bit of a change.  It's nice that good music is easily accessible and artists like Burial are getting more attention but at the same time there was definitely a certain pleasure that came from feeling "in the know", when there was still a music underground.

You  may recall that I saw Four Tet live a little while back and thought he was brilliant.  Well, he's put a live set up on soundcloud now so you can decide for yourself.  Check it!


I'll end with this.  I actually came across it thanks to comments on the Burial tracks left at Fact.  There's nothing I can say about it.  Just watch it:

Live Double Whammy! Part One: Virgin Freefest

Well, I've been off for a long time but hopefully this long-ish post will make up for my absence. Had a music filled couple of days which I think are worth sharing.

First up was the Virgin Mobile Free Fest this past Saturday in Columbia, MD. This has become somewhat of a mid-Atlantic institution and I think this was the second time they did it for free. A surprisingly indie-leaning line-up was spread out over three stages, with a good amount of dance acts thrown in too. Oh yeah, and Ludacris was there.

Merriweather Post Pavillion, which is where the fest took place, is a pretty good outdoor venue, close to lots of roads and even rail. Needless to say, the event was packed (did I mention it was free?), and nice sunny weather only helped. Age-wise, the crowd was a mix -- I'd say it leaned towards the younger, but there were people in their 30's (cos how many kids listen to Pavement?), some young parents, and even older folks with their teenage kids. Not sure how I feel about that -- I'd like to be a cool young parent, but do I want to expose my little 'uns to the smoke, sun, dust, and extremely loud noise? Probably not. And if my kids are teenagers they should really be making their own way to these things. Young people nowadays! More on that later.

So the place was packed, and it was very hot. That meant some shade action for me, so I went over to check out Neon Indian in the "dance forest" -- a shaded area near the edge of the grounds that was actually full of trees. The nice thing about being slightly older, and being me I suppose, is that I no longer feel the need to be up front where the action is. I spent a lot of the time watching acts from the comfort of a beach mat in the shade where the sound was good but not ear-damagingly loud. Had time for a chat here and there too. Neon Indian was decent, some good tracks, but not enough to really grab my attention. Next up was DC's own Thievery Corporation on one of the main stages. I listened to them mostly lying down and thoroughly enjoyed the experience -- a multicultural dance music band like Thievery, with influences from all over the shop, really defines the festival experience for me. I started feeling the vibe while listening to their global rhythms.

I then checked out the cheeky funky sounds of Chromeo back in the dance forest. I enjoyed their fun take on 80s' electro influenced dance music; they reminded of Daft Punk without the pretension. Pavement were up on the main stage next. I don't know their music very well but got quite into the indie guitar sounds and lo-fi aesthetic. I took a half an hour break to see Sleigh Bells (started off good, but felt overly pummeled half way through -- noise for the sake of it, toughness for the show of it?) and then went back for more. After that was a haphazard attempt at securing lawn space while everyone bar me and one other person went to check out MIA. I wasn't too bothered cos I'd seen her after Kala came out and I think she's annoying now, especially after that infamous NYT article. So, lawn space hopefully secured, I instead headed once again to the Dance Forest to see Modeselektor. Their furious techno was under-appreciated since they were on at the same time as MIA but I loved it and got down properly for the first time that night (mostly cos I was by myself). Half an hour of Ashraf shape-throwing ensued.




Last act of the night on any stage were LCD Soundsystem. An odd choice of headliner, one would think, since really how many people are into them? But they attracted a big crowd who seemed to know their stuff. I wasn't sure about them myself to be honest. Up until recently I had a low opinion of LCD: they were an over-rated indie version of dance; James Murphy was involved with DFA, the home of crappy punk-funk; he was also fat and annoying. I checked out 'Sound of Silver' and was thoroughly unimpressed by it, despite the glowing reviews. But then I read about their most recent album, and how it was their last, and started to rethink (and to stop being a hater). Plus, I've grown older and started asking myself the same questions as Murphy seems to have (am I a bit past it for all this? Am I relevant or cool? What's the point to any of this anyway??). Lastly, my brother said they were great live, and that definitely proved to be true. They were another highlight of an overall great day of music, and 'Losing my Edge' brought a big smile to my face as it closed the night out. I will definitely be giving LCD another go, as well as picking up some Pavement.



Now for the fest experience overall. I haven't been to too many big festivals, and not a single overnight one. The ones I have been to have generally been underwhelming, but I think there are multiple factors that go into that -- any music event held at RFK stadium is going to seem a bit crap no matter what happens, and HFStival half a decade ago was no exception. I enjoyed this one quite a lot but I can't imagine ever wanting to go a festival and stay there for more than a day -- the dirt and heat and discomfort are tolerable when we're talking hours, but extending that to days and adding tents, portaloos, and no showering to the mix sounds like a recipe for misery to me. So you can keep yer Glastonbury! Another festival downer is the sheer amount of drugs in the mix, whether it be alcohol, weed, or tobacco. I felt smokier after the freefest than I have in a long time; it was basically as bad as indoor concerts used to be when smoking was still allowed (if you live somewhere where indoor smoking is still allowed, sorry. Now go wash your clothes and take a shower, cos you stink). And then there's the kids. A festival like this being free is a pretty great thing, but I realised that it's only free because it presents corporations with a captive audience and a massive marketing opportunity. The middle section of the festival site was entirely devoted to corporations, their wares, and their crappy free giveaways. And people lined up for that junk! Not only that but they seemed happy to be getting even more for nothing, even if it was rubbish. Ok, some of the giveaways were actually useful, like the beachmats Virgin were handing out if you recycled something. But the bright green Toyota bandanas people got and then actually wore? The State Farm backpacks?? NO, NO, NO! C'mon, the kids! When I was younger "selling out" was still a real concept; now it seems that having your music in an advert is an aspiration -- that or on the soundtrack to some shitty mainstream teevee show. But that kind of selling out is really just one part of the larger commodification of what used to be youth culture by large multinational corporations and The Man. Yes, I sound like a bit of an old punk at this point, but it's true! Kids should be taking full of advantage of corporate stupidity by enjoying the music and ignoring the marketing but they don't seem to be clued-in enough, or to even care that they're really only seen as consumers. Rant, rant, rant; I could go on, but I don't see the point. I had a good time, the line-up was good, the setting was good, and I only got one piece of free crud -- the aforementioned Toyota bandana, soaked in ice water, and used to wipe the sweaty scuzz off the back of my neck before being discarded. Why can't young people think like me, eh?