Peace For Our Time

There’s little doubting that bands like the Polyphonic Spree and Arcade Fire have undoubtedly opened up the horizons of independent music in the last few years. However it’s been disappointing that the former proved to only have handful of decent songs whilst the latter appear to have morphed into Bruce Springsteen.

The Second Hand Marching Band are the latest band to try and make the most of that legacy. Boasting a membership to rival the Spree (up to 22 on a clear night) their EP ‘A Dance To Half  Death’ suggests that they may just have the songs and the potential to better the Fire.

‘A Dance To Half  Death’ is another of these rarities – something from the Inbox that I love. I confess that the heading on the email – ‘Your blog and our songs’ – wasn’t terribly enticing. But when I did get round to it I discovered that this was an email which was worthy of further investigation since I had read about their live shows.

As they say, there’s a strong folk influence on the tunes with a huge battery of acoustic instruments being utilised. And if there is something of a post-rock structure to some of the songs, their real strength lies in the tunes. The title track is particular is a multi-layered and expansive epic with a strong chorus.

I’ve probably just saddled them with unreasonable expectations but have a listen to this and I’m pretty confident you’ll be off looking for one of the remaining copies of the original batch of 100 CDs.

The Second Hand Marching Band – Don’t! (from ‘A Dance To Half  Death’ EP) [Buy it]

You can hear the whole EP at their Myspace.

Free Music (3)

Not a full post rather a reference point to some free music.

One of the Triffids’ show at the recent Perth International Arts Festival can be viewed here. At time of writing it looks like there’s supposed to be 4 segments but one and two are of the same portion of the show. There’s still almost 3 hours of material to view.

For anyone who isn’t aware of the format these gigs featured the surviving Triffids supported ably by various Aussie contemporaries such  as Mick Harvey, Mark Snarski and Steve Kilbey and a younger generation of musician.

Krisitn hersh meanwhile has started giving away more music. Whilst last year’s ‘Speedbath’ project is being finalised for a proper LP release, probably in April, she has posted the first of the next batch of songs – ‘Gin’ – go here for more info (and consider making a small donation if you’re not a CASH subscriber.

Triffids photo by wolfcat_aus

All Encompassing Positive

Discovering legends operating within a few miles of home after more than 20 years is more than a little disconcerting. Yet the Wildhouse merit that description. In the mid to late 80\’s they allegedly flirted with the prospect of attracting a wider audience only to sabotage that by asking that their deal match that of the Primitives. All of which, I\’m ashamed to admit, completely passed me by.

After a period of inactivity a new line-up has been playing in Dundee (and further afield) in recent years and they came to my attention when I was putting together the line-up for this.

I finally got a hold of their last LP \’Poet:Saint\’ last week and it\’s pleasing to be able to report a) that it\’s a cracker, and b) that it captures some of the fury of the live shows.

The songs range from the 12 minutes of sonic terrorism on epic \”DC\” to shorter, sweeter numbers such as \’\’ . The moods vary correspondingly too. There\’s a lot of negative energy around – Paul and Sheila sing \’And it makes me hate\’ on \’Coffin Factory\’ and the Sonic Youth influenced closer relies on the refrain of \’Die The Wildhouse Die\’. But \’Doug and Billy\’ is more optimistic – \”history will be kind\” .

Paul\’s vocals sound resigned throughout, world weary perhaps in the face of the guitars onslaught, although the number of feedback drenched tunes is actually in the minority.

The Velvet Underground are undeniably touchstones here. But in an era when prog seems to be an increasing influence on some alternative music it\’s refreshing to hear these sort of influences again.

You can get \’Poet:Saint\’ via the Wildhouse Myspace.

A far more literate review of the album courtesy of La Terrasse.

A live version of a track from the LP:

The Wildhouse – When Beatles Were Liars (live)

And a video for \’Doug and Billy\’.

The Wildhouse have upcoming gigs on Friday 6th March (Dundee, Hustlers), Friday 27th march (Dundee, Balcony Bar) and Saturday 28th April (Glasgow, pivopivo).

The F-Word

F’uh Kinnell! For whatever reason (and rock’s too knowing for it to be a random outbreak of Tourette’s) there seems to have been a pandemic of bad language in band names in recent time. We’ve had Fucked Up, Holy Fuck, plain old Fuck and Fuck Buttons. And doubtless many more.

I mention this because the latter band were one I investigated via my emusic subscription based purely on end of year lists. I’ve said before that the subscription hasn’t had the desired effect of broadening my horizons as much as I’d like it to so every now and again I have a blowout on stuff without peer in the collection.

And Fuck Buttons are definitely a hit. Their LP from last year only features six tracks but is an exhilarating exercise in repetition, rhythm, noise and, even melody. Opening track ‘Sweet Love For Mother Earth’ is a decent example – opening on gentle melodic synths, noise and rhythms are added to brutal effect. It’s actually almost 10 minutes long yet it doesn’t feel like that.

Brutlaity is perhaps the key – a lot of this record is aggression passed off as electronic music. It’s also almost entirely instrumental, any vocals included are heavily sampled wordless, screams.

Not for everybody, I guess, but I think it’s fucking brilliant. If I’m allowed to amend my end of year list, then this is in, near the top.

The video for single Colours Move.

Buy the CD here or download the LP here

Homegame Bound

I came home this evening to find an email from Fence announcing the line-up for their annual Homegame bash on 17th-19th April.

The line-up is frankly stellar and, as well as Fence leading lights Kid Creosote, James Yorkston and the Pictish Trail  features established MPT favourites such as Malcolm Middleton, De Rosa, The Phantom Band, Emma Pollock and Kid Canaveral with up and comers such as Eagleowl, Rob St John, Meursault and Viva Stereo to name but a few.

I’ve cleared my weekend to go and if you want to be there I’d head over the Fence website pretty smartish because the tickets won’t last long if they’re not already gone.

One of the artists who will be performing at Homegame:

PS Entries aren’t exactly flooding in for the De Rosa contest so if you fancy wining a copy of ‘Prevention’ then check out the podcast in the last post.

Passion Not Profession – MPT Podcast #1

Podcasts are a new venture for the blog. I’ve had the technical capability to do one for a while but I was really looking for something a bit different to justify the effort. And I think I have it in the shape of an extended interview with Martin Henry from De Rosa.

So the debut podcast is based round the interview, with music from De Rosa as well as Mitchell Museum, the Phantom Band, Kid Canaveral and TV21 as well as a couple of surprises.

Anyway, enough prattling – here it is:

MPT Podcast 1

Thanks to De Rosa, Chemikal Underground, Mister Tramp Records, Kid Canaveral, Mitchell Museum and TV21 for their assistance with putting this together.