Yves Klein Blue

It’s been a long while since a band from Queensland impressed as much as Yves Klein Blues (named after French Dada artist Yves Klein and his wonderful piece from the 50′s “Blue – but I digress). Smart arse name aside this is band that knows how to play hard, have a listen to “Silence Is Distance” over at www.myspace.com/yveskleinbluemusic. They certainly impress.

But the real find was “Getting Wise”, this puppy is seriously slick. I am in awe of the clever lyrics and the phrasing. It sounds so casually thrown away as a performance, but damn it’s slick. And then there is the rest of the production, polished?  This is so shiny bright that you will need shades to listen to it. The organ provides just the perfect counterpoint to the understated guitars.

Am I gushing? You bet but they are worth it. They have a great rep as a live act and the release of the new CD will confirm them as a great recording act.

Here is “Getting Wise”

Recommended (and make sure you don’t miss “Silence Is Distance” over at Myspace – it’s a gem)
Websites at www.myspace.com/yveskleinbluemusic and www.yveskleinblue.com

Stornoway

Unlike the members of Stornoway Jools and I have been to Lewis, and I thoroughly recommend the trip to to the band. But I digress… we are here today to recommend Stornoway (thats the band) to you.

According to their web presence….

The band consists of an Ornithologist, a wannabe Russian translator, a South African Pirate Captain, a human radio and a kitchen sink. They were first united in a snow-encrusted garage in Oxford and have since attracted the attention of Dr & Mrs Killjoy the neighbours and their android children. None of the band have ever been to Stornoway. But Brian once got to within 37 miles of it.

For me their songs are haunted by a Celtic feyness, they seem to harken back to other times and other places. Have a listen to “Here Comes The Blackout” or “Fuel Up” over at www.myspace.com/stornoway, they are both wonderful songs and I might add both still on my MP3 player after several months.  The melodies are insidious as is the apparently simple production and instrumentation.  But don’t kid yourself, this is wonderfully crafted pop / folk. The vocals are lavished with such attention, you can’t help but hear the lyrics and stories the band want to tell.

And they are good stories… Highly recommended

Website at www.myspace.com/stornoway

Here is their ReverbNation player

The Field Mice

The Field Mice were an early Ninties pop band, long broken up. But as Chris Anderson of “Long Tail” fame points out their music will be around for a bloody long time. Which is exactly how I found them.

I honestly can’t remember listening to them their first time around, but I was reading an article on another band that referenced “The Field Mice” as as an influence. So I looked them up.

About The Field Mice
THE FIELD MICE were formed in Mitcham, a dull outer suburb of south London, by Robert Wratten and Michael Hiscock. Bob and Michael first got to know each other while in the Lower Sixth at Tamworth Manor, the local comprehensive, and often discussed the idea of forming a band. On leaving school, however, they went their separate ways, and it seemed the moment had passed. But a chance meeting in Croydon Our Price brought them together again, and the idea was quickly rekindled.

A local studio – Ian Catt’s in Yorkshire Road, housed in Ian’s parents’ spare-bedroom and literally just round the corner from Bob’s house – was chosen from an advert in Melody Maker. Here they recorded their first demo, with Bob on guitar and vocals and Michael on bass, primitive rhythms being supplied by a cheap drum-machine bought as a present for the nascent band by Bob’s sister Lisa. Three of these songs found their way onto a demo sent to Sarah Records – Bob had heard a couple of the label’s early releases, by bands such as The Sea Urchins and Orchids, and thought The Field Mice would fit in – and Sarah liked it enough to tell them to send their next demo when it was ready. On receipt of this second tape, featuring the song Emma’s House, Sarah offered to pay for the band to return to the studio to record 4 songs for a 7″ EP. Emma’s House was released in November 1988 and, pretty much by word-of-mouth alone, went on to sell 5,000 copies. The band also now made their first tentative steps into the world of live performance.

Their first gig was at the Apple Orchard in Brighton in January 1989, their next supporting the Inspiral Carpets at Exeter University, their third in Southampton and the fourth at the Square Club in Cardiff, playing to a dark, cold, empty basement after a long drive down the M4 in the rain. A second single, Sensitive, came out in the following February. It received great reviews everywhere, most notably in Les Inrockuptibles, the leading French music monthly, which made it Single Of The Month, the review being signed by the entire editorial staff – a unique event in the magazine’s history! This was probably the start of the band’s huge popularity in France – they toured there several times over the next couple of years, including headlining two sell-out Sarah Festivals in Paris, and are still regularly name-dropped in the French press to this day.

Next came the Snowball mini-album, its entirely blank lilac 10″ sleeve an early indication of Bob and Michael’s fondness for the anonymity and enigma typified by early Factory releases (no Field Mice, Northern Picture Library or Trembling Blue Stars record ever provided so much as a line-up or writing credit, let alone a photo). By the time of their next release – the 2-part 7″ Autumn Store – they’d expanded to a 3-piece, having added Harvey Williams from fellow Sarah act Another Sunny Day on guitar and keyboards. Another mini-album (Skywriting) and more singles followed, and the band picked up two Melody Maker Singles Of The Week. There was also a one-off 7″, I Can See Myself Alone Forever, on Caff, the label run by then Melody Maker journalist Bob Stanley, who’d become a huge fan of the band, and who was later to ask Bob and Harvey to play on the first St.Etienne demos. St.Etienne also covered The Field Mice’s Let’s Kiss And Make Up as their second single, and it was through The Field Mice that Bob Stanley was introduced to Ian Catt, who received production, arrangement and co-writing credits on a lot of early St.Etienne material.

Over the course of all these releases The Field Mice continued to confound people with their range of influences – initially early Factory bands such as Joy Division, New Order and The Wake, but later the burgeoning dance and ambient scenes – e.g. Skywriting featured Triangle (essentially an 8 minute sequencer solo) alongside the sample-barrage of Humblebee (with it’s droning chocolate-love-sex mantra – later a top-selling T-shirt design!), and Missing The Moon was described in the NME (who made it Single Of The Week) as heralding the long-awaited meeting of Pop and Acid-House. By this stage, the band had become a five-piece, having added Mark Dobson (originally from Hartlepool, but now living in London where he was a DJ at Syndrome and contributor to Lime Lizard magazine) on drums and 18 year-old Annemari Davies (a student in Manchester, but originally from Poynton in Cheshire) on vocals and keyboards. Both had been fans of the band, and had asked if they could join. The first gig as a 5-piece was at Bedford Esquires in September 1990.

The Field Mice split in 1991 at the end of a highly successful but increasingly acrimonious UK tour to promote their final album, For Keeps. There were many reasons for the rancour, including disagreements between band and label about how best to record and market future releases (the band had always felt held back by the endless generic Sarah reviews, in which reviewers persistently linked them with some post-C86 “indie-pop” scene with which they felt no affinity and for which they harboured no especial fondness), disagreements within the band as to whether going full-time was now a serious option, and frustration that live performances were being hampered by Annemari’s increasing tendency to bouts of stage-fright – often she would arrive or leave halfway through the set, and sometimes be unable to join the rest of the band on-stage at all. Perhaps most significant, though, was the relationship that Bob and Annemari had begun whilst the band were on tour in Japan, which had to some extent split the band into two camps, and made Michael in particular feel somewhat isolated from his old friend. A meeting between band and label was arranged for the final night of the tour, and it was here – after soundcheck, everyone huddled backstage before going out in front of a packed King Tut’s in Glasgow – that Bob surprised everybody present – including, it turned out later, himself – by announcing his intention of leaving the band. They played the gig as planned – an ill-tempered set, not surprisingly – but that was effectively the end. Their final show was a couple of weeks later in London at the Tufnell Park Dome: they encored with The End Of The Affair and, as they walked off-stage for the very last time, Michael paused just long enough to whisper “the end” into Bob’s abandoned microphone

Yep, I know. Way more than you ever wanted to know but it seemed like a good I idea. I took it all from their MySpace site www.myspace.com/thefieldmicesarah. The band  are a lot of fun to listen to and it seems a pity they gave up.

Recommended

Website at www.myspace.com/thefieldmicesarah.

Dont Tell Sophie

Dont Tell Sophie are the latest addition to my indie pop fetish. Two CD’s and a handful of EP’s since 2005 and frankly they just keep getting better.

“Sand To Glass” is the current release (they are recording a new CD at the moment) and it’s pretty cool. But my indecision not withstanding, I think my favourites are “Vonnegut” and  “Look No Cavities”. Or maybe “New Friends”.

What can I say, lot’s of guitars, killer melodies and hooks that just get seriously stuck in your head. This is a really tight band. Not over produced, wonderfully raw sound and to top it all off clever lyrics and really ggod vocals.

Be warned, these guys make music that is going to get stuck in your brain for weeks. Don’t blame me…

Recommended

Website at www.myspace.com/donttellsophie

The Temper Trap

The Temper Trap fired up in 2006, released an Ep, got tons of airplay on Triple J and managed to be completely overlooked by me. BUT all that changed when I heard “Science Of Fear” over at www.myspace.com/thetempertrap, it’s a great piece of really commercial pop in the early U2, Coldplay, Radiohead vein. Lots of ringing guitars and swathes of keys, strings and choirs.

Video for “Science Of Fear”, it’s pretty…

Don’t miss the remixes over at MySpace, the one by Mistabishi

Websites at www.myspace.com/thetempertrap and thetempertrap.com/

The Good Fight

The Good Fight are a band from Coleraine in Northern Ireland (Jools and I have been there). It’s four dudes that are playing a highly commercial (and radio friendly -if there are still any radio stations left out there playing new music) brand of pop-rock.

The big sell is the vocals,  this band is fairly flush with vocalists but it is Ben Robinson’s that is the stand out, and they have paid attention  to the melody part of their music lessons.  Their songs are catchy as hell (occasionally fashionably flat – but you can’t have everything). There is a download available of their song “Electric Flow“, that will showcase their strengths. It’s hosted at NICHART.COM

The line up is

Ben Robinson – Guitar/Vocals
Steven Gilpin – Guitar/Vocals
Adam Montgomery-Bass/Vocals
William Ritchie – Drums

Here is the video of “Glad You Know”…

They are incredibly slick, passionate and yes they obviously listen to U2 Radiohead and Coldplay, but then? Who doesn’t. I hope they are going to be around for awhile, it will be interesting to see where they go.

Recommended

Website at www.myspace.com/thegoodfightni and they have a presence over at Facebook.

The Submarines

Oh bugger, Apple have side swiped me yet again with their latest iPhone ad. This time it’s The Submarines, damn the APple ad dudes know how to pick a catchy tune. At least this time they gave the band an actual credit in the ad.

A quick trip to Google and before you knew it I was listening to “You, Me and the Bourgeoisie” and slightly in awe of the lyrics, they explore the dichotomy of our need for social consciousness and the hypocrisies inherent in our own lives – sort of like writing a really good song and then selling it tio Apple for an ad campaign. (Art imitating life)

John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard recorded HONEYSUCKLE WEEKS, their second album as THE SUBMARINES, as summer vines blossomed and the sun coaxed green grasses up around the stones leading from their East LA home to their garage-turned-home-studio. Honeysuckle Weeks weaves together themes drawn from their immediate surroundings and experience: the garden outside, and the push and pull of life and love inside.

The tracks available at www.myspace.com/thesubmarinesmusic sound just wonderful. Here is a band that knows there influences and embraces them. From the evil dub groove in “1940″through 60′s pop and then on into their own individual feel. I really like this duo, they are wonderfully comfortable on the ear and with repeated listings you discover just how clever they are.

Highly recommended

Websites at www.myspace.com/thesubmarinesmusic

I mean when you think about it, how hard can it be to find a song with big wooofy kick drums, Scritti Politti vocals done with tons of helium (well that’s what I thought it sounded like- it was a 30 sec grab – give me a break), hand claps galore and some of the yummiest retro synth lead breaks I have heard for ages. But best of all, it has a hook that is related to the song title (thank god).

It’s short (way to short in my opinion, but if you get the loop points just right … I digress).

There are only three tracks over at au.myspace.com/passionpitjams but they are all pretty good. For me though, Sleepyhead is just a stand out piece of pop. The other standout is “I’ve Got Your Number”, it starts out all coy and quiet, lots of subtle work playing with synths and the melodies and then about halfway through it kicks in and transforms into something new and it is really well done. I am quite envious.

Here is “Sleepyhead” from over at YouTube…

The band songs are just so full of energy and their melodies are so well crafted that they sneak up on you, but like all good pop music they are as infectious as hell and you will find then still stuck in your head a week later.

Highly Recommended
au.myspace.com/passionpitjamspassionpit_sleepyhead

No Age

They were right.

So lets run down the checklist.

Guitar? Check.
Drums? Check.
Yep – That’s it. Just the two instruments.

No Age is a two-person noise pop group consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles and currently signed to Sub Pop records. They take their name from the title of a 1987 SST Records instrumental compilation, which Spunt discovered while working at Aron’s, a record store in Los Angeles.

Their strong ties with the Los Angeles underground community centered around the Smell and their DIY ethic is a throwback to the 1980′s strong hardcore and punk underground, and, indeed, that inspiration shines through on much of their music.

They have released two full-length albums, toured extensively in support of them, and are strong advocates of the All-ages Movement Project, an organisation that connects youth to each other and the arts through independent music.

If the NO AGE stuff I have been listening to is indicative of what they do live, then this band are a sure bet to outgrow the Los Angeles underground scene and with their “take no prisoners attitude” get a wide spread and appreciative audience.

Highly Recommended

Circus Envy are from Hull in the UK and as their website tells us:

Circus Envy are a rootsy five piece based in East Yorkshire, with a sound equally influenced by classic rock, folk rock and Americana.

Diverting from the mainstream by using instrumentation as exotic as the cajon, and the bouzouki, Circus Envy delight audiences when playing both electrically and acoustically, building on the strengths of each to create a subtly different, organic sound every time.

This indie band is hot and despite the fact they are only offering about 1 minutes worth from their songs, you can’t but help get sucked into the souring vocals of Leigh Hirst; if you have a Last FM account you can listen to the whole album or if you haven’t, it’s worth considering to hear it before buying a copy.

The rest of the band are James Paddison on bass and vocals, Mike Richmond on bouzouki, guitar and mandolin, Andy Clark on guitars and Mick Harding on drums, percussion and vocals. Their debut album “Take Me Home” is ripe with juicy tunes all vibrating with life and energy.

Pop/rock tunes with a folk feel, great voices and a really trippy band. Recommended.
Their website: www.myspace.com/circusenvyband