Don't forget about this, Darren Hayman of Hefner fame is treating us to a song a day for the month of January.
Here's number one, pretty good stuff. There's also a calendar showing his movements throughout the month and who he's planning on collaborating with, should help pass this traditionally long month, plenty to look forward to.
My name is Darren Hayman. I'm going to write, record and release a song every day during January 2011. They won't all be good but some might be.The songs will be available as high quality MP3s for free for a day or two via SoundcloudThereafter the songs will be available to buy in MP3 and higher quality formats via BandcampHere is a calendar to help show what I am doing and when.I'm pretty full up for musicians and collaborators but that shouldn't stop you asking. I would particularly like to hear from film makers who might want to make videos etc. You can contact me here januarysongs2011@gmail.comOn this page I hope to post the songs, a daily blog, videos, drawings and photos. Wish me luck.
For the last year or so, Grouper have hogged the top spot of my Last Fm Top Artists for the last rolling 12 months, I don't check every day but for a long time my love affair with Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill has left all other artists lagging behind...until this week that is, when Grouper finally made way for, of all people, Belle and Sebastian.
I find it almost hard to believe that the first band (well maybe second or third, as Blur and the Foo Fighters filled much of my early teen listening years) I ever really obsessed over have stuck so firmly in my playing selection. I say this because I'm the kind of person who always wants to hear something new, always ready to discover something different and I get easily bored of albums. Seven or eight years ago i could firmly tell you my 5 favourite bands, that being Belle and Sebastian, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hefner, Clinic and The Delgados, these days Iseem to be able to discover five new bands a week, i could hardly begin to squeeze down to a solid list of my ten favourite bands, maybe not even 20. Since these humble beginnings my tastes have evolved through indie pop, electronica, post rock (to the point of boredom), drone and more recently dubstep and even house and yet subconsciously and admittedly with the help of a new album, Belle & Sebastian are still doing it for me, more so than any other band over the last 12 months it would appear.
Posted by
ben
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04:57on Saturday, 16 October 2010
Theres has always been a place in my heart for Darren Hayman and Hefner, i can't remember whether it was an NME compilation that featured the track Pull Yourself Together (as well as Kimberley by Clinic) or a tape that Matt Glazebrook made me with The Sad Witch on it, either these two tracks triggered a long standing love affair with Darren Haymans heart broken, never giving in attitude to love. The lyrics have always been incredible, managing to be funny whilst at the same time touching, an art that few have mastered, MJ Hibbett tries it but I see him as a wanna be comedian rather than a singer.
I will admit to being not as much of a fan of the last two albums, that being Pram Town and Essex Arms, though having the chance to see him live recently means that these two will no doubt be revisited (certainly Essex Arms, i'm not even sure it's been commercially released yet). The aforementioned live performance though is where i'm at. The last time I saw Hefner, they had just released We Love The City and they were brilliant, performing downstairs at Rock City, it seems quite strange that 10 or so years later that Darren is performing alone with a Ukelele to little over 50 people at the Chameleon above Clinton Cards in Notttingham, but the setting couldn't have been better. The intimacy of the venue lent itself to allow the songs to come to life, lyrics you'd never heard before making sense, making you laugh and putting the genericism of life in England into a neat and tidy musical format. The references to labels and brands are there, whether it be Ben Sherman or Lacoste, the working men and footballing watching types could find solace in all the sentiments the songs produce. In my opinion this was one of the best live performances charisma wise that i've seen in a long long while, perhaps since Kenickie and i'll be amking sure that I catch him on every possible occasion from now on.
A Lily – Wake:Sleep "sweet, meandering melodies, caught somewhere between sleeping and waking. childrens' voices echo incoherent and lively; electronics, accordian, drums and glockenspiel drift in and out."The Wire
It’s taken me a long time to get into this and I wonder why, it’s so perfectly me, perhaps it’s those final two tracks, far too long for my short attention span, too droney and uneventful, maybe they just don’t fit the rest of the album, the latter being 30 plus minutes in length, perhaps on my way to sleep I would welcome them into my ears but following on from the glorious six tracks that precede them, i’m not interested. Maybe if this is available on vinyl the label will have been discreet enough to have tracks 1-6 on side A and 7 & 8 on the flipside, they seem that far removed. The album comes with a story...( "In his solo project A Lily, James Vella creates willowy instrumental dreampop whose pitter-pattering beats, chiming melodies, softly murmuring voices, and fluttering guitars sound like they're emerging from behind a translucent scrim. Inspired by his girlfriend Leanna, Wake:Sleep is a valentine set to music created by the Canterbury resident and Yndi Halda guitarist using primarily computer and electric and acoustic guitars, but also accordion, piano, drums, glockenspiel, bass, and pretty much anything else within reach.)...and its every bit as beautiful as the sentiment, six pieces of glitchy goodness, skittering beats and gently whispered sampled laments, like múm if they only shopped organically and avoid e numbers, like a film dropped on the floor before developing, stained half recallen memories of good times, the light that awakens you day in day out, reliable, bright and persistent. Children’s voices reminiscent of Boards of Canada and Isan, twinkles and chimes so soothing on the brain that remind me of I am Robot & Proud, each song slowly turned inside out as if to reveal the inner person, the secret person of the heart. A special special album.
Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee - Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee (Fortuna Pop!) I wonder where he finds the time, where he finds the inspiration, this being the umpteenth release this year from the wonderfully honest and analytical Darren Hayman formerly of Hefner, one of my all time favourite bands. Darren has the ability to put feelings into words, everything you want to express, all those frustrations you’ve felt, all the sideways glances, all the thoughts you never thought you’d tell into flipping good pop songs. With Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee there is a diversion from the normal sound this being a bluegrass project, which would normally be enough to turn anyone off, however alongside Dave Tattersall of the Wave Pictures the Hayman magic shines through as ever. Hesitation Blues will have you strutting around your kitchen and dosey doe-ing your loved one whilst your kettle boils, Jameater Blues will have you flinging open your windows on even the coldest days and make you eat jam straight from the jar without a care in the world. High Blood Pressure cannot fail to make you smile, alternatively it may just inspire you to go watch O Brother Where Art Thou? Go embrace Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee, let some light heartedness into your life.
The Mountain Movers - We've Walked In Hell And There Is Life After Death (Fortuna Pop!) With a title like that of an over ambitious post rock band or a survivor from the lost island writing his autobiography you’d be forgiven for expecting something pretentious and overblown. It won’t help their cause when I tell you that all the songs are about death, the devil and the afterlife. You’ll be pleased to know however that instead of being some death metal disaster, the kind people at Fortuna Pop! Are treating you to 12 songs as laid back and splendid as everyone’s favourites, The Butterflies of Love.
Bubblegum Lemonade – Ten Years Younger EP Strawberry Whiplash – Who’s In Your Dreams EP A lovely couple of releases straight out of Glasgow from the ever reliable Matinee Records. Bubblegum Lemonade are very JAMC and very Creation but loveable all the same. Ten Years Younger is a brilliant shoegazey pop song with an almost Aislers Set/Black Tambourine stomp to it especially as it resurrects itself so brilliantly just before the three minute mark. That Thing You Do! Sounds like something i’ve heard before, it’s nothing new but it’s exceptionally well done. Highly recommended. Strawberry Whiplash have a similarly familiar sound, this time more drenched in fuzz and keys, like a modern Shop Assistants, and really need I say anything further than just go discover them.
Cocoanut Groove - The end of the summer on Bookbinder road A brilliant harpsichord drenched track of Left Banke pop with a bass line taken straight from the fret board of the Association. One for those few sunny days when you miss the old Belle & Sebastian.
A delightful album of layered electronics, found sounds and gentle guitars coming over like a mixture of Bright Eyes and The Postal Service given a laconic remix by Four Tet, all woven and sewn up into a little package of early morning sunrise.
Best taken as a piece of music rather than any individual tracks that jump out, here Matthias Grubel satisfies those like myself who were disappointed by Khonnor's much talked about Handwriting.
The Young Republic - 12 Tales From Winter City (End of the Road) Another great pop album, this time from the talented Boston octet The Young Republic mixing Belle and Sebastian, Hefner, The Tyde and even early Embrace without sounding identical to any of them. Great well written and perfectly executed pop songs, mixing both folk and country along the way, stylish and instantly memorable.
For those recently finding themselves suitably satisfied by Venetian Snares latest album My Downfall but a little disapointed at the sparing use of ridiculously fast beats, for those who prefer more breakneck offering such as his Infolespsy EP and Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms LP the brand new album from Bogdan Raczynski will be a blessing. Coming from interesting roots, born in the US, schooled in Japan and eventually becoming homeless and living on the streets of Tokyo, he now finds himself sitting comfortably on Richard D James Rephlex label and releasing techno-electro-8bit-breakcore to the delight of my ears on the recently emerged album simply entitled Alright, taking a leaf not only from Aaron Funks tree but also that of Aphex and recent discovery to me, the excellent Ceephax.
Darren Hayman - Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern (Track & Field) I've long since championed the genius of Darren Hayman, stood by him in each and every outfit, from Hefner, arguably one of my favourite bands ever, The French and finally Darren Hayman as a solo outfit (no doubt the completist will add that I’ve missed some more and you'd be right) what i hadn't realised was that he hasn't been performing to the high standards we were once so used to, I’ve enjoyed each and every album but i do remember when We Love the City and Dead Media came out being disappointed, yes they grew on me but ultimately in comparison they weren't really a patch on the exceptional The Fidelity Wars and Boxing Hefner, good but not as good. And so here we find Darren firing on all cylinders churning out the kind of tracks that seem plucked from our everyday lives, our broken hearts and our deepest sentiments. Elizabeth Duke is wondrous "I bought you a ring form Elizabeth Duke/ I took my own sweet time before proposing to you/ Because all those night when you looked so beautiful/ i forgot to tell you how much I loved you". Art and Design sketches its way about complicated love scenarios, Straight Faced Tracy again is lyrically magnificent as we always expect, "I checked out the barometer/ I read the weather vane. I’ve got sensible walking shoes/ I've got my walking Cane...Tra----cy, I’ve been looking down the M11 link road" A national treasure and one right on top of his game.
Future of the Left – Curses (Too Pure) It’s fair to say that heavy music rarely does it for me, and when I say heavy I don’t mean heavy in the sense of Let Airplanes Circle Overhead, Russian Circles, Pelican and the like, I adore them, no I mean heavy as in with screaming and intenseness, it’s the combination that I’m not that fussed about. However there will always be exceptions, in the past the main exception happened to be the highly underrated Mclusky and so its no surprise that my new favourite band (for 15 minutes as ever for me) are Future of the Left the new project of former Mclusky front man Andy Falkous and drummer Jimmy Egglestone. This is no nonsense full on aggressive in your face rock, yet for all its no nonsenseness it full on nonsensical lyrics, and melodies that will having you nodding your head and banging your steering wheel as you wait at the lights.
In the tradition of Mclusky amazing song titles are ever present (My Gymnastic Past, Suddenly It's A Folk Song, Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood) and perhaps less familiar will be the excellent keyboards lines now present used to amazing effect on the fantastic Manchasm, I’ll let you discover this years best outro yourself, needless to say that like Mclusky, Future of the Left are a very special band.
Go! Team - Proof of Youth (Memphis Industries) I’m not ashamed to admit that I really never intended to hear this, planning to avoid it at all costs. I really enjoyed their debut album but was let down with the live performance, it was all very “put yr hands in the air, like you just don’t care” and didn’t do it for me at all and then a series of events, the plan b interview, to quote “I wanna be a cartoon! I wanna be a comic! I wanna be a watch!” why? why would you ever say that? And then the press shot in the latest Plan B, grotesque and utterly repulsive, again why would you let people print such bad pictures of yourself, and yet I eat each and every one of my words, I take back all my misconceptions, my past experience of bands never quite matching the exuberance and quality of their debut, my everything, Proof of Youth is one of the best albums you will hear this year, full to the brim and overflowing with feel good tunes, songs to pick you up, to make you dance, to let you forget about all the crap you have to deal with, I love this album, only a week ago I could never imagine saying such a thing. Its sends a shiver down my spine how good this album is. Taking the best of hip hop and mixing it in with a serious helping of motown, tracks like Doing it Right have no need to beg you to dance for by the time the first bar has kicked in you’re already there on the dance floor, and a series of chants likely to be echoed on a million dance floors “do it do it alright” “extra extra read all about it”.
If you thought Annie’s Chewing Gum was the song to get you in the mood then now you have a whole album, soo good that you’ll be tempted to stay in, it really is that good. I’m having trouble describing just how good, Fake ID is smothered in such northern soul magic where it not for the hip hop twist you’d swear you were down Wigan Casino on a Saturday night. Don’t let your musical snobbery put you off, Proof of Youth is awesome.
Back when I was a lad, or at least when I when I was first beginning to “properly” get into music, whereby I mean that my record collection no longer consisted of taped music recorded from and occasionally by friends too cautious to “lend” in fear of never seeing their beloved disc again. Instead my hard earned cash gave me the opportunity to fill every possible place I could ram a CD within my (shared) box room…and so I did…and so my findings led me to a pentateuch, so to speak, of bands that I both swore by and adored, bands who could do no wrong in my eyes…a list of which follows
It is from the final and perhaps weirdest and unpredictable of the bunch that arises my latest obsession, that being the solo project of former front man Euros Childs, going by the alias of…erm, Euros Childs. Gorky’s a their finest where able to produce both noise and melody, hush and chaos and ultimately a song for each occasion, whether that be the loud and chaotic Sweet Johnny, the literally barking mad Poodle Rocking, the sunshine pop of Spanish Dance Troupe, Diamond Dew and Patio Song or the heart melting four tracks that closed 1999 album, Spanish Dance Troupe, who could forget the “Jodie brown eyes” line, one that to do this day I find myself randomly singing. And so out of nowhere Euros has given us three albums in the space of sixteen months, Chops (13/2/06) Bore Da (05/03/07) and now The Miracle Inn (25/06/07), a treasure trove of Gorky-like pop. The piano led pop remains, songs like Horse Riding & Ali Day are instant classics, whereas the more ambitious 15 minutes of The Miracle Inn show the ideas and experiments are not running short yet. Costa Rita is a lovely love song told in the normal Euros way, quirky and normally from a distance, the way we all fall in love with that girl that we see on the bus each day, the one who walks past our window at work, the one who works in the florist down the road and yet we’ll probably never ever pluck the courage up to talk to her let alone tell her how we feel. Country Girl shows his fondness for country as previously expressed in the much loved yet little heard Johnny Cash Lawsuit Song. Euros Childs is a madcap genius who deserves your attention, let him put a little sunshine and romance in your life.
