More Middleton

Just a quick note today to say that there would appear to be 2 Malcolm Middleton gigs in Glasgow and Edinburgh in December. According to Gigs In Scotland (there’s no word on his official site or on Malcspace as yet), he will be playing Glasgow, ABC on Wednesday 5th December and Edinburgh, Liquid Room on Thursday 6th December. Tickets here. No indication if he is playing solo or with the band.

His website does state that he is working on an acoustic(ish), mini(ish) L. Or even LP. Which is all rather exciting.

From the wonderful ‘Into The Woods’:

Malcolm Middleton – Devastation

Buy the record here. No, seriously, if you don’t have it, buy it!

And So Begins The Show

It seems to have been a long time coming but former Delgado Emma Pollock finally released her debut solo LP last Monday. Given that ‘Watch The Fireworks’ on 4AD had been preceded by 2 promising singles (‘Adrenaline’ and ‘Acid Test’), expectations were high in these parts.

It sounds like these expectations have been matched. Emma has produced an excellent record balancing the upbeat (the aforementioned singles) with some slower songs worthy of the lineage of ‘Pull The Wires From The Wall’. Indeed there are plenty of pleasing, complex melodies on here and the songs are really strong throughout.

If you want to, then you can hear plenty of the Delgados on the record. Opener ‘New Land’ is effectively a rock waltz which somehow manages to be reminiscent of both the Delgados ‘The Light Before We Land’ and ‘The Past That Suits You Best’.

It seems strange but I didn’t get one of the LPs highlights ‘Limbs’ until I heard it on the LP. But it’s a gorgeous tune and many of the other songs are just as inventive melodically. I think I might have already said that.

In essence, ‘Fireworks’ is much more of a grown up, accessible female singer-songwriter record than your average indie long player. Whilst Emma’s guitar features throughout there’s not much in the way of rock guitars on here (the chorus of ‘Acid Test’ is one of the exceptions).

I feel (nay, hope) that one individual track being drawn to the attention of the radio programmers could be enough break Ms Pollock to a wider audience. It may be that, given that, mysteriously, the up tempo tracks haven’t done the trick so far, that it’s one of the slower songs that does. Maybe this one:

Emma Pollock – Fortune (from ‘Watch The Fireworks’)

We’ll see. In the meantime, you can buy the LP here or here.

Photo by Jenny Lewis

Set Off The Critical Alarm

Given that Sonic Youth’s “mainstream” output has been somewhat variable over the last decade or so, I’ve been wary of the various side projects. But I’m delighted to report that Thurston Moore’s latest solo outing, ‘Trees Outside The Academy’, released last week, is really rather fucking wonderful. In fact ‘Trees’ is perhaps the best thing he’s been involved in for some time – it knocks ‘Rather Ripped’ right out of the park.

The funny thing is that, despite being pegged in some quarters as a largely acoustic record, the songwriting isn’t that different from Thurston’s SY stuff. In fact on ‘Silver>Blue’ there’s a typical SY lengthy instrumental workout which is given a twist by its use of acoustic guitars. Overall it’s this use of acoustic textures and, heaven forfend, even strings which gives this LP a very fresh feel.

The acoustic tag is also slightly misleading inasmuch as there’s not only plenty of electric guitars on display here (some courtesy of J Mascis) but even a few blasts of feedback. These elements all come together on ‘Off Work’, one of two wonderful instrumentals on the record, its grungey intro being complemented by an almost airy string section which leads into a blast of feedback before the song remerges again on the other side.

It’s the quality of the songs throughout that helps elevate this beyond your typical SY side project whether it be songs like ‘Frozen GTR’, the instrumental title track or the much more traditionally acoustic arrangement of ‘Honest James’.

Settling on even a couple of song with which to highlight this album’s strengths is difficult but here’s my selection, at least for this evening:

Thurston Moore – The Shape Is In A Trance

Thurston Moore – Off Work

This is a record with the potential to appeal beyond the SY fanbase. Buy it at your local record store or here.

Boyracers

So, for the first time ever I end up coming home from a gig with a BOOK. And a very, very good book it is too.

Alan Bissett’s tale of growing up in Falkirk, on the surface, seems more than a little removed from my own dim and distant youth. The cultural references are so modern, it is a book about a different generation. However underneath it all, ‘Boyracers’, emphasises that, actually, growing up hasn’t changed that much at all. Whatever your generation you have your own cultural imperatives but music, girls and drink are at the centre of everything. I’d probably do well to remember that when my kids hit their teenage years!

Bissett’s novel therefore reflects not just the joy and the pain, but perhaps most of all, the disorientation of these years. And it’s frequently very, very funny. Highly recommended for all ex-teenagers.

Not surprisingly, given his involvement with Malcolm Middleton in the ‘Ballads of the Book’ LP (and apparently they rehearsed in the same band in their youth), the music is stuffed full of musical references. So here are 3 songs – 1 directly quoted in the book, another by an artist referred to in the book and one from Falkirk’s finest:

Suede – She’s In Fashion (from ‘Head Music’) [Buy it]

The Chemical Brothers (featuring Mercury Rev) – The Private Psychedelic Reel (from ‘Dig Your Own Hole’) [Buy it]

Arab Strap – There Is No Ending (from ‘The Last Romance’) [Buy it]

Buried away in the acknowledgements there’s an interesting dig at those who wouldn’t give permission for their lyrics to be quoted in the book. Their reward perhaps has been to be misquoted.

Buy ‘Boyracers’ here.

 

Here Is The News

A couple of gigs worth drawing to your attention. First off TV21 are playing their first headlining gig in over a year on Saturday 27th and it’s in Glasgow. The show is being promoted by Sounds In The Suburbs and takes place at the Accies Club on Helensburgh Drive. Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know how impressed I’ve been by the last few TV21 shows I’ve seen so this IMHO is worth catching particularly since support comes from We Were Promised Jetpacks. TV21 also support the Undertones at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh on Thursday 8th November. Tickets here.

Secondly there’s another De Rosa acoustic show at the Darvel Music Festival on 6th October. To celebrate this, there’s another De Rosa demo entitled ‘The Mute’ available on their Myspace. More info on the Darvel Festival here.

Next there’s another Red Guitars compilation due in the near future featuring the singles and the LP. There was also a show played in Brighton under the name ‘Red Guitars’ featuring Jerry Kid and Hallam Lewis a few days ago. More details here. (Thanks to Rob for bringing this to my attention.)

And last but not least congratulations to JC, Matthew and Ed for their recent national recognition.

A tune? Ok, I thought it would be a wheeze to feature a song with the word ‘news’ in the title in these type of posts. So here is one:

The Vapors – News At Ten ‘(from New Clear Days’)

The Vapors are best known for their ‘Turning Japanese’ hit, but this was the follow-up. Sounds a bit like the Jam to me! Their records still seem to be available. Try here if you like what you hear.

Tonight There’s Nothing To Say

Well, not quite. It would be a short post if that were true! But, having finally got round to purchasing it, I suppose it’s time to talk about the remastered ‘Daydream Nation’. I also recently read Matthew Stearns’ book in the 33 1/3 series on the LP so I’ll talk about that as well. Taken together they point me in an unexpected direction.

Firstly Stearns’ book illustrates my inability to articulate my feelings about the music I love. Sure, I can enthuse, but actually explain why I love a record? Not even close.

For me, ‘Daydream Nation’ is one of the classic LPs, in my top 5 all-time list without doubt. It’s a fierce, tough even brutal record but it manages to add in moments of beauty amongst all the rock noise. And yet it’s not just any old rock noise – Sonic Youth manage to distill something unique (in my experience) from their wide range of interests.

Stearns though has much, much more to say, he has a book to fill after all, even if it’s only a short one. The big danger, particularly with a band like Sonic Youth is that the book might degenerate into pretentious gobbledegook.

On the whole that’s not the case. Firstly the detailed descriptions of the songs are terrific and very well written, whilst the discussions of the lyrics are often interesting. There are also eyewitness recollections from the main protagonists and I’ve always been fascinated by this sort of thing. Finally there are some attempts to place the record in a wider context and it is the only in a couple of these passages that the book runs aground on the feared pretentious rock criticism.

As a companion piece to the remaster therefore it works really well but it astonishes much just how much new light it throws on these songs. The detail I’d missed before now is frightening – ‘Eric’s Trip’ for example starts with Lee saying ‘Achoo’.

It also throws up an interesting thought – if I’ve missed this much of one of my favourite LPs, what else am I missing? The truth is that, in a busy life, it’s rare that I can devote the time to listen to music properly without distraction – it’s usually an accompaniment to doing something else such as driving (or typing!).

In terms of the original record, yep, it sounds better, nay more frightening, than the original CD. Due to the length of the LP, Disc 1 features only 1 bonus track, a home demo of Lee doing ‘Eric’s Trip’ on an acoustic. It sounds a tad improbable but it’s a fascinating recording.

Disc 2 is largely devoted to live versions of each song from the LP. It’s pretty good and handy to have this sort of document. In fact I wish SY would release a live LP with every tour they do. Most certainly would be worth owning.

Finally there’s a handful of covers from compilations at the end of the record which makes the whole thing a nice package of Daydream era related items without resorting to the piles of patchy demos which have featured heavily on the 2 SY Deluxe releases up until now.

I suspect that if you’ve got this far you’ll already own this. If you haven’t you should and the Stearns’ book is also worth the price of admission for further insights into the record. Get them both here.

From the live disc:

Sonic Youth – Silver Rocket (live)