New 405 Offering

It's been a while, but I have another 405 post up over at that wonderful website; this time, it's a review of Prince Edward Island, who I gave a staunch but not brilliant 7 for a staunch but not brilliant album.

Recently I've been listening to a lot of Canadian Mother Mother's old output. They're a really fantastic band. Even though you know they never do what you expect, you still don't expect what they do. (E.g. in the chorus of 'Legs Away', both the guitar and singer slide from a minor into a major key in a single bar.)

Below is 'Hay Loft', a great track from the catchier end of their repertoire, one with immediacy and punch (others take longer to warm up, but it's all killer, no filler in the end.) The video isn't the official one, because I feel like that doesn't do the song's atmosphere justice.



That's one of their more whimsical songs, taken from the 2008 album O My Heart. I'd recommend listening to 'O My Heart' and 'Wisdom' if you want to hear some variation within that era of Mother Mother. Either way, go and discover a brilliant band before winter creeps up and you have to open up the darker catalogue.

Brett Domino, AKA Rocco La Bête

I'm sure I could write a much longer article on the brilliance of the Youtube phenomenon Brett Domino, but I think that will inevitably follow the release of his album in March, so I'll leave it until then to discuss such things.

For now, I think you should all read the hilarious interview I did with him around Christmas, found below on The 405, and enjoy the wonders of a pop-parody act that can truly do it all.

Rocco La Bête Interview

French Music, and Being a Reviewer

Currently, I have an article up on The 405 which I'm quite proud of:

France - Them and Us in Music

While I recommend heavily that you go and check it out if you like foreign language music, or just to learn a little bit about another culture, it serves to make another point. My responses so far have included:

This is an awesome primer.

and:

Anyway, great article!

Thanks to the commenters for those little rewards, because I have to say, if anyone chooses to comment usually, it's to bash me and my opinions. Now, I've had a couple of fair criticisms in my time, where people haven't agreed with my comparisons to other bands or something. Those I can take, because certain areas of pop and folk aren't my forte, and although I do think I write decent reviews, sometimes they're not the most informed.

However, other times I get "F*x!ing b*%£! this review is s$*t, this is the best f%^!ing band to exist ever, you d*£&head." Now, the last of these examples was for a band called Thread Pulls, who, for all the swearwords in the world, are just a bit shit. It thinks itself all very arty with weird titles and strange echoey synths, but the singer can't sing, the lyrics are crap and there really isn't any reason I'd ever listen to it sober.

That is, as I'd admit, only my opinion. Whatever the fans are hearing between the lines that keeps Thread Pulls in bread and water is beyond me, but I'll admit that I could be missing some point or other. Maybe.

But eh, I'm not underqualified just because I don't like it. If everyone 'qualified' likes it, why isn't there hype for this band? I think it's because they're not all that great. They grate at best. Anyway, music is one of the most difficult of the arts to judge on quality alone: personal preferences always make for subjective reviewing.

So for all the haters out there: remember reviews are just reviews. Everyone knows it's mostly opinion, and unless the reviewer has made some unjust factual claims or slandered the band, swearing at the reviewer will only make you (and by extension, all fans of the band) look pathetic. Going by some daft pseudonym only reinforces this image of you.

Jamie Lenman Interview and Update

Writing for The 405 gave me a viable excuse a few weeks ago to email illustrator, musician, and all round Great Guy Jamie Lenman, lead singer of Reuben. He agreed, and right now, I have 2 items on the home page of The 405, an interview with Jamie and a review of the tUnE-yArDs' new single, Real Live Flesh. My, unnecessary capitalisation pisses me off. It's hard to type, and if they thought it would make the name memorable, they were frankly wrong. I can never remember it. It's a good job the single is worth a listen, really.



My friend brought up an interesting point the other day. Should music criticism be as huge as it is now? Being a voluntary music writer, I tilted an eyebrow and rushed to the defensive guns of "Of course, then how would you ever find out whether music was worth listening to or not?"

But if that was my main argument, I was struggling. To be told what you like and dislike in music is the easy way out, and it's part of the reason why fashions still have their cold fingers laced around the ventricles of the modern music scene. (To reiterate: music isn't good because it sold well in your peergroup, or simply because it's new, and that's what fashion dictates.) Other arguments for music criticism are forced: if there were no reviews, there would still be adverts, the radio, sites like last.fm and Spotify, articles on new music... so you can't say that it is our only gateway to music.

What other arguments are there for music criticism? It's always irritating to hear our favourite artists being slammed by critics who we would usually respect, (or not), especially as every sensible person knows that while there are technical qualities to albums, most of our judgment of music is subjective. Music criticism can make or break careers, and most of it is guided by peer opinions and personal prejudices anyway.

Then again, my best retaliation came with the argument 'there has to be a filter in the music system'. In businesses, there are promotions up for offer, you get increasing salaries and responsibilities and jobs with each step up. You could not impose a system like that on the arts. Criticism, however harsh and demoralising, can give a band the boost it needs to get onto the (albeit unevenly runged) ladder, and then offer educated opinions on what should and could do very well. As long as the reader can identify whatever spin has been put on the article, and can think for themselves, criticism can be the most helpful way to separate the cream from the milk. And the off milk from the good milk...

And of course, everyone wants to do it. Most people who love music have sneaky reviews somewhere in their computer, or in their minds, ready for conversation; many write online, or for magazines. It's a natural urge, putting into words what music makes you feel, think, do.

Music can change lives, and the kinder end of crit acknowledges that.

Have a read of my items on The 405 anyway (or not); I'm really glad the website's taking off. I'm not just spouting spiel when I say it's an exciting thing to be part of, as it's growing so fast, getting so much more professional and organised. If you can get yourself to any of The 405 nights in London, I'm assured they are amazing nights out, and Oliver Primus would appreciate your company!

New Article at The 405

A few days ago, I had the feature space on The 405 homepage with my rather short article on Crossover Artists. You can read it here, at The 405, or hold on for my most recent review in a couple of weeks. Finally I've got an album worth reviewing, LoneLady's new release Nerve Up, so that will be going up at some point. Hopefully, I'm starting my Guide To: Sonic Youth once I've given Confusion is Sex and Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star proper listens, and read the biography.

I'm shameful to announce that I do not have any more gigs booked at all. I've been waiting for The Strokes/Carl Barât/Belle & Sebastian/Sonic Youth to tour Britain for a long time, but I've been unlucky, it seems.

The Libertines' fanblog 'Breck Road Lovers' seems to have gone dead since Christmas. I hope the woman who runs it is okay, and coming back soon: she fueled my obsessive following of Carl & Pete with daily titbits for about a year, and it would be a shame to lose that reliable and eclectic news source.

Christmas: the Death of Music

Why do Christmas songs have to be cheesy and bad? There's no law about it, surely? And why can't we play new Christmas music every year, like we do all the rest of the year round? Yet again this year we're dreaming of a white Christmas, having a merry little Christmas, and Lord save us all, rockin' around the Christmas tree. The more traditional of us are dinging and donging merrily on high, decking the halls with boughs of holly, and coming a-wassailing (what even is that? I can't be bothered to Google it, or watch the Christmas special of QI).

Why? Just...why?

Having said that, Christmas number one is reserved for winners of The X Factor only, a new kind (and level) of cruelty that isn't even about Jesus. Maybe the many Facebook groups will persuade the General Public to buy the Rage Against the Machine track instead of the Leona Alexandra Jackson-Ward single, but still, the monopoly of crap will still own the charts that week.

Nevertheless, I'm not going to deny that Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without crooners singing old tunes on Radio 1. It's the charm of it, the heart-warming mindlessness of the repetition. It's cheerful, and communal, and comfortable.

Now listen to a screamo parody and shake yourself free of all that nostalgia.



Edit: Website The 405 have agreed with me on this one, and put together a playlist of 100 indie Christmas songs for your dilectation, so to avoid bleeding ears this cheery season (or lose respect for all your favourite artists), go and check that article out.

Article on Album Art and Other News

I've done a short article slash synopsis on the relevance of album art, on The 405. I was quite proud of it, although I appear to have constructive criticism already...onwards and upwards I suppose. I can only get better.

(Or worse. But shush.)

Now, onto music. The Cribs have a favourite band, namely Comet Gain, and as a devoted Cribs fan who usually respects their musical opinion, I searched them out. I realised Cribs are extremely like them - more similar than 'influenced'.

Listen to these two, even only for a little while, and play spot the difference. Well, they're not that alike, but there are very clear similarities. They both start with one of those repetitive rhythmic guitar intro riffs, and then the lyrics come in - simple and based around the naïve concept of innocent platonic love. They both totter along to about 3/4 of the way through with simple chorus/verse structure, pretty but loose vocal harmonies, and come to a mildly sketchy but contrasting section, which peters out to an ending with lots of echo and feedback, fading out.





See what I mean? Either way, it's irrelevant, I like them both. Though not specifically those songs: try I Close My Eyes To Think of God by Comet Gain (which is not Goddy) and compare with We Share the Same Skies by The Cribs. Not as similar, but both better tracks.

New Reuben Review at The 405

I have officially posted my first ever 9 out of 10 on The 405. Reuben's new album, a B-sides and rarities release, is definitely the best album I've ever got for free! I made my love clear here at The 405.

A 405 Update and Other Bits & Pieces

My first ever very positive review has gone up on The 405, a review of the CarCrashLander album Mountains On Our Backs. I decided to give it 8/10, for reasons you can find out if you read the review. That 'job' is going quite well, I've reviewed quite a few things already, and I'm about to submit a Graham Coxon single review, which is also very positive. I must be mellowing with age, or I've just been inundated with great music.

While on the topic of Graham Coxon, can anyone actually translate his Twitter updates for me? He has so many injokes with himself I can barely understand a word of it. That doesn't matter though, really. What matters is that he's got even more fantastic at the guitar for this current album The Spinning Top, which is out now. I reckon he's picked up an acoustic tenderness from Peter Doherty, judging by the single. If I had the money, I'd buy it. However, I've spent that money on going to see Blur in Wolverhampton; at least he profits.

I heard a snatch of Frank Zappa yesterday, one of the artists I really should know about and listen to, but don't. A few weeks ago I reviewed Marmaduke Duke's new album, saying I'd never heard anything like it. Well, now I have, and Frank Zappa did that stuff decades ago, so I'd like to mention that in retrospect. The nod for originality I gave Marmaduke is not quite so deserved, especially as if Zappa did experimental electronics in that style, someone else probably did too. My fault entirely for being too young to know Zappa first hand.

The 405 - A Recommendation

I am now on the writing team at The 405 (click here) and my first two reviews are online now. One is a retrospective review of Blur's Parklife, and the other is a review of rockers Hundred Reasons' new album, Quick The Word, Sharp The Action. There is also an interesting debate over whether The Libertines should get back together starting up at The 405 Debate.

The 405 (and yes, this is a plug) is an excellent review site, looking at art, books, film and music, which is just about to turn 1. It's really worth a look, and worth favouriting if you ask me. I wouldn't have offered my writing 'services' did I not think it was a brilliant site. Go on...