Chorlton’s Dulcimer Bar (”Fine Ale and Finer Folk”) hosts the frankly weird and quite refreshingly wonderful world of Circulus. To call Dulcimer a venue is stretching it a little – this is more like watching a gig in your front room (although to be strictly accurate those of us who remember the former incarnation as Quarmby’s stationers know it as the erstwhile toys and games department). Sam and the Plants entertain with a variety of arcane instruments and world weary lyrics railing at the futility of modern life (”bastard son of John Cooper-Clarke and Ivor Cutler”, quoth a fellow audience member) leading to their final number which builds intriguingly around a loop created with a bottleneck-played home-made zither.
How to describe Circulus’s dress sense? Looking like a bunch of extras from Blackadder II (with a soupcon of Viz’s ‘Real Ale Twats’) in hats, capes, and pointy shoes, Circulus take to the stage and announce that they will be playing their new (as yet unreleased) third album. Nods are made to UFOs and extra-terrestrial visitors until, a few songs in, ‘Sumer is icumen in’ ROCKS, with a faultlessly simple chorus – ‘Sing, Cuccu!’, and you begin to realise that under all the madrigal twiddlings, Tyack is a damn fine guitarist. Finishing with old favourites ‘My body is made of Sunlight’ and ‘Power to the Pixies’, and then a bonus re-run of ‘Sumer is icumen in’, the audience is sent home happy. Seeking mediaeval inspiration is not in itself new – Gryphon and Amazing Blondel spring to mind – but Circulus marry this with vintage 70’s space-rock a la Hawkwind/Gong. It was probably no coincidence that ‘Hurry on Sundown’ was played during the interval… now covered by Vetiver, who played here earlier in the month. Now just WHAT is going on here?
It’s been a few years since The Kills were mentioned on Cool Noise (2003 if I remember correctly). They haven’t been exceptionally busy since then but they do have a new album out now called Midnight Boom. I read an interview with Jamie Hince where he claimed that this latest work was a departure from their previous in that it s designed to be danced to. Of course he is just teasing and although more rhythmically-based and using more keyboards rather than guitars, the familiar elements of crude rock noise and the studied ‘cool’ female vocals are still there.
The Kills do have an alarming tendency to descend into playground chants occasionally but this is kept to just parts of a couple of tracks like Sour Cherry. I do detect a more pop/melodic approach than before. Songs like Black Balloon and What New York Used To Be are simple pop tunes with a bit of a twist but pop songs nevertheless. I have to admit I do like them a lot in this more commercially acceptable approach where they strip everything down to simple catchy melodies and add the interesting noises to keep me feeling that this is a band that are not taking the obvious approach..
What New York Used To Be by The Kills
What New York Used To Be (clip) by The Kills
The Kills are never going to make a completely satisfying album - they play around too much. But what they do on this album is mix things up a bit - things like sex, art, pop and noise. Whether it is rabble rousing, ear hurting, or a sweet voice that you want, the Kills can do it all.
Years Around The Sun are a band from San Diego. I reviewed their first album a couple of years ago (on BlogCritics) and was very complimentary.
Their sound is fresh and startling - anthemic melodic vocals, keyboards, punchy bass and drums. If you put this on in the car then you will be asked “who is this?” during the first track. Again I am going to make the comparison with The Go-Betweens and Grant McClellan’s songs because of the evocation of open space and melody. Listen to this excerpt to see what I mean:
Roundabout
Roundabout (clip) by Years Around The Sun
If I had to voice a reservation then it is that Years Around The Sun do sometimes get a bit “samey” with the consistency of their sound. And then they come up with a wonderful track like Heart Delay where the vocals are shared and the interplay produces a glorious sound of intricacy and passion.
I’ve been catching up on what Sonic Youth have been doing since 2000. Listening to their 2004 album Sonic Nurse, I enjoyed the familiarity of the same electric guitar sounds and those oh-so-familiar vocals - a thoroughly pleasant experience guaranteed to relax you. The only strange part was the review that I read that causzed me to listen to the album began: “Picking up where Murray Street’s languid experimentalism left off…” I interpreted that as Sonic Nurse would also be languidly experimental but I ended up wondering what on earth “experimental” meant to the reviewer. It seems the word has nothing to do with trying something new but repeating some intersting guitar sounds that you first tried 12 years ago.
Anyway, as I mentioned, it is very nice album in its own terms (familiar, relaxing) but its lack of challenge became more apparent when the next track on my MP3 player was the track The Burning Spear from their first EP in 1982. The build up of driving bass, churchbell-like percussion sounds, then an extended white noise scream from the synth. Now, that still feels “experimental” and can set my head shaking.
Little Fish have signed to Custard Records/Universal (the label that has James Blunt on their books). It has been almost exactly a year since a thirty second blast of Devil’s Eyes was played on the Radio Oxford Demo review - their first exposure to the wider world. I have become familiar with a number of brilliant bands/artists over the past 5 or so years but, out of all of the unsigned bands, Little Fish were the most likely to make that leap. The voice, the music, the songs, the live perforamnce? Yes, but others had that too. I like to think it is not because they broke the rules of what a band should be - but they didn’t even accept that there were any rules. No bassist, no distance between the singer and audience, no guitar solos, no restrictions on mixing in any genre/decade/style of music - so what, that’s Little Fish.
I was watching My Name Is Earl on the TV last night and suddenly there was a song I recognised used as backing to a scene where Earl shoots an arrow into the air (and it then skewers him on its way down). The song was Me and My Arrow by Harry Nilsson which is covered by The Simple Carnival on the EP of the same name that I have been listening to for a few weeks.
Me And My Arrow
Me And My Arrow (clip) by The Simple Carnival
This is an EP of Pop so, well, Poppy that it almost defies belief. But this isn’t the cheesy attempt at humour of Mike Flowers, but seems to be a serious love of the sweet melody and gentle dance rhythm. It is the product of one man: Jeff Boller, who clearly has an ear for a good tune and a wry sense of humour as well.
When I was growing up there was a clear conflict between Pop music and Rock music. Pop meant shallow while Rock was ‘heavy’ and ‘deep’. And even now melodic beat combos still stick to their Indie credentials and try to fool people that they are a pretty smile and a sweet rhyming couplet. That leads me to a problem - I still feel that way. I say ‘feel’ because I get a physical reaction to too much saccharine tunefulness. I understand that to openly present pure Pop is really the more radical option but I am old and reactionary now.
So, I am not saying I like this record. But there are enough melodic hooks here in amongst what my ears hear as ‘cheese’ to convince me that Jeff has considerable talent. If you like a bit of Beach Boys harmonies then you really should get acquainted with The Simple Carnival.
No doubt about it – the venue’s the star tonight. St Philips with St Stevens is situated in what remains of old Salford, and is a gorgeous 1820’s building that is still in good condition. Contemporary Salford intrudes, however, in the form of warnings to keep Satnavs hidden (and the inevitable post-gig smashed windows). Still, good luck to the forward-thinking vicar, and the little bar serving local real ale was another nice touch.
I’ll try to avoid “waif-like” and “vulnerable” clichés, but she’s a slight, short-haired young lass, and her introductory ‘Rebecca’ was performed solo, unmiked and unamped, with the audience giving total respect. Her clear vibrato-tinged tones were enhanced by the church acoustics, and she continued with just her and an acoustic guitar, until the rest of the band gradually joined her on the altar. Sparse, sensitive backing gives a stripped-down feel, allowing the underlying melancholy (if not morbidity) of her lyrics to come through, with ‘Night Terror’ sending a shiver down my particular spine, before the evening ends with a jaunty ‘Alas I cannot swim’, done as an advance encore.
Any female folk(-ish) singer-songwriter gets the usual comparisons; Beth Orton, even Sandy Denny. My own points of reference were the Decemberist’s quieter moments, and maybe a nod to Throwing Muses’ Kristin Hersh. It’s pleasing (to me, at any rate) to see the decreasing influence of the alt.country/Americana scene (although she cites Will Oldham as a major influence) in favour of yet another native folk-based revival. She’s only 18 – watch this space….
It’s been a few years since The Kills were mentioned on Cool Noise (2003 if I remember correctly). They haven’t been exceptionally busy since then but they do have a new album out now called Midnight Boom. I read an interview with Jamie Hince where he claimed that this latest work was a departure from their previous in that it s designed to be danced to. Of course he is just teasing and although more rhythmically-based and using more keyboards rather than guitars, the familiar elements of crude rock noise and the studied ‘cool’ female vocals are still there.
Years Around The Sun are a band from San Diego. I reviewed their first album a couple of years ago (on BlogCritics) and was very complimentary.
I was watching My Name Is Earl on the TV last night and suddenly there was a song I recognised used as backing to a scene where Earl shoots an arrow into the air (and it then skewers him on its way down). The song was Me and My Arrow by Harry Nilsson which is covered by 
