mp3: Mapped By What Surrounded Them

There’s a sense of guilt for not writing as much as I should recently. But any feelings of guilt are compounded by not yet writing about The Twilight Sad and how they’ve been my band of the past few months. To the extent that I had to import their CD from America before its European release, and to the extent that I listen to it on average four or five times a week (I rarely endure any prolonged train journeys without it). And then there’s the fact I saw them put on one of the best live shows I’m sure to see all year, and I still managed not to write about them.

Fortunately, they have set the rest of the blog world alight this year instead, possibly even more in the US than in the UK, which is pretty impressive for a Scottish band. I wish I could play catch up by giving away every single track of their debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters and forcing you to listen to it, but that seems a tad immoral. Instead I just picked a random song (I could have opted for any of them, really) and if you need more convincing just head to every other mp3 blog.

The studio stuff doesn’t quite represent the live sound, which is more like a deathly wall of noise. Their show at Oran Mor in Glasgow back in June was pretty remarkable, what with the audience singing along right out of blocks -pretty impressive for the first hometown headlining show. Course, the band were wasted, using alcohol to try dull the nerves, and I was told afterwards by someone who watched them every night on their US tour that he’d never seen them play so badly. But the rest of us were simply blown away by the experience and I was seriously surrounded by grinning fans down the front. It was easy to just close your eyes and visualise them headlining festivals and huge shows - and, of course, the star quality of singer James Graham, who’s capable of vocalising fire, certainly helps.

So yes, I recommend getting in on the game now, before everyone else does.

mp3: Eating Noddemix
website: Young Marble Giants

Love, that’s what I feel for this band. Not “they were cool”. Not “you should listen to them”. Not even “I hope you like them”.

Within the space of a single album, they managed to carve out a sound that was completely original, completely them; I love their ingenuity, their unerring beauty, the simplicity and unassuming depth, their unworldliness. They sounded and still sound like no-one else. The sparseness of their arrangements, Alison Statton’s gorgeous, lonely, reverbing voice; someone once told me they loved the “symmetry” of Philip Moxham’s basslines, and normally I’d set fire to someone for saying that sort of thing, but in this case, he’s absolutely right. The balance and simplicity of their music is utterly bewitching. It feels somehow natural and calm, but running right through it is a kind of under-the-skin sadness that just won’t leave you alone. One thing that’s made me happy is that with all the re-releases this album has had, they’ve never changed the original cover, which, along with the title, Colossal Youth, has a kind of grandiosity and classical feel, like it’s always been there, waiting for you to discover it, and you just found it growing in the ground.

But don’t get me wrong, this is no Starbucks organic sigh-into-your-coffee feelingsy music to put next to the horrors of Jack Johnson or Nick Drake, who, like old wood, has been reclaimed and turned into something polished and shiny to balance your cup on; in this music’s quiet sadness, there’s an inner core of steel - a revelling defiance in their unpolished but perfectly formed songs. There’s not a second of indulgence here, no solos, no wasted drumbeats, no trilling for decoration. It’s, as I say, just perfect in its simplicity. I can’t put it better than that, sorry. No point screeching on when they didn’t. Go and buy it, or steal it, if you do that instead.

If you decide to go legal, you’ll have to buy it on 2 July, obviously, as it’s not out yet.

Buy.

mp3: Wickerman

I’m a big fan of Pulp; always have been. There’s something about Jarvis Cocker’s intelligence and need to tell a story that I’ve always admired, his easy wit and the fact he can descend into self parody sometimes absolutely shamelessly just makes me like him even more. Anyone who can sing in a magician’s whisper, “Nouga-a-a-at! And…caramel!” and still move me more than almost anyone else I know is worth knowing.

I’ve written before, ages ago, about why David’s Last Summer from His N Hers is one of my favourite songs, it reduces me to bits if I think about it too much, how they capture so beautifully a change in your outlook, your life, your existence, when you first take steps away from what you’ve always known and have to face up to responsibility, becoming an adult, even though you haven’t really got a clue what any of that means - the utter joy at the fact of existence, with that itch of sadness, a tinge of guilt, even, at how it’s just really a series of endings, one after the other. And Jarvis does it all the time. That line in Dishes from This Is Hardcore, banal in itself as read but so warmly delivered, you feel he’s singing only to you: “And I know I’ll never touch the stars, cos stars belong up in heaven, and the earth is where we are…” and finding total peace in that admission, rather than more boringly seeing it as being a moment of defeat, is perfect. It’s one of those lines that somehow manages to mine down under my skin right into me, I find myself mouthing it when I hear the song, it pricks through the, as Liz Phair called it when she was still good, on Nashville, “slick divide”. But Nashville’s a whole other story.

So I stumbled across Wickerman from We Love Life. I like that album, in the main - there’s some dull stuff on it, but it’s got Weeds, Sunrise and Trees on it, all lovely, and it’s more muted and contented, a perfectly good ending to a great group. I would hear the first line of Wickerman when it came on at random on my mp3 player - “Just behind the station…before you reach the traffic island…” and it never really engaged me before. But on the bus in from the airport a month ago, I bothered to leave it and let it carry on - “..a river runs, through a concrete channel. I took you there once, I think it was after the Leadmill. The water was dirty and smelled of industrialisation… Little mesters coughing their lungs up, and globules the colour of tomato ketchup. But it flows. Yeah, it flows.” And the images keep pouring in, as he takes you underneath the city, following the dirty river; it reminds me of how I feel about my home town.

Walking around my old home town, the quiet of it, the fact you could be in all sorts of places there all alone; you forget that sometimes, when you live in a big city. You can be somewhere and be alone. Just you, a stinking and barely moving brook, a motorway and railings. Or going back to childhood haunts and seeing how they compare when in miniature, almost, because you changed, you grew up, you saw things you could compare it to, while it did nothing but just stay there. Whether it’s the sugar-soil-sulphur hills we used to go and play on, with our own versions of dramas involving bigger boys, adults behaving strangely in places they thought we couldn’t see them, falling down hills, climbing, bikes, fishing; the parks and overgrown places you weren’t sure you were allowed on, but went anyway, or the safer confines of front gardens and front rooms. I went back to the park area where we used to play about a year ago and as expected, it was smaller, but lay pretty much as it had when I was a kid. The hills were still there but even calling them hills was pushing it; the brook next to the canal was a lot nearer than I remembered, the route out of the park that [info]mrstevie and I would take when going on insane mile-after-mile walks was a lot longer than I remembered. There were dedicated benches each with a bunch of plastic-wrapped flowers sitting as though thrown on, in the middle of a clearing. And…single men everywhere. The place I used to play’s become a cruising ground, it seems. A quite paltry one, but one nonetheless. I walked up to the Nine Arches, texting [info]megazoid, and watched people walking along the railway tracks from the ground, one waved at me, I waved back. I stood under the arches and read the graffiti about all the people whose names ended in Z and were 110% Fit.

In the other end of the town, you walk out of a small wood adjoining the lake straight into a cornfield, then within seconds you’re under the motorway, someone seemingly, from the subject matter, in the correctional facility down the road, has written a pornographic story in large marker pen on the railing top next to another stinking and stagnant stretch of water which somehow has graffiti on the other side, despite there being no means of getting over there. And then you’re out the other side and up a hill, watching golfers move between the trees in the distance, hearing the motorway, completely impassable, and ending your journey before it’s started, right above you, and I distinctly remember hoping no-one else was coming under that low, dark, smelly bridge; the country’s most boring lake and busiest motorway separated by a dirty story that must have taken hours to produce in the dark. Seediness, greenery and solitude always seem to go together in small towns.

I don’t have memories of romance in my home town like Jarvis does, of the “child’s toy horse ride that played such a ridiculously tragic tune”; opportunities were always more imminent and even brutal than romantic. There wasn’t really room for it in Newton-le-Willows, and I didn’t have the courage to embrace romance there, and courage would certainly have been what you needed. But there’s something about this song, the yet-again joyous sadness and the wonder at things you have literally lived with for so long, your whole life, that they seem just like a low hum in the background. I love how certain songs suddenly turn up that volume on that hum and reveal it to be so much more rich and tuneful and varied and surprising; it just pulls me back to it all the time.

Buy

mp3: When We Were Younger and Better
mp3: Don’t Go Down to Sorrow

website: http://www.65daysofstatic.com/

Ah, the might of the 65days. You can’t beat a bit of their static electo rock explosions. They were the best band I saw live at Motel Mozaique 2006 and they’ve released three full albums now and none have had a weak spot. Well, I’m not totally convinced about evolutionary progression either, but they still have the power to thrill me with their instrumental post rock electro-programmed noise. Some token bio if needed (cos you know how much I hate having to write out facts):

“65daysofstatic decided to slow down and take its time in making their third full-length record, The Destruction of Small Ideas. Though One Time For All Time was hailed as the “most vital, enthralling and unrelenting record of 2005” by Drowned in Sound, 65days are back with an even more polished product in hand. The electronics are integrated further into the mix, adding to, rather than distracting from, the epic organic guitars: “you can turn it up on your stereo and it’ll sound really, fucking, nice…” The band has played in front of thousands across Europe and Japan, and this beast of a record is sure to gain them the same sort of attention in the US. Though they had to kick a Scottish after-school dance troupe out of their own auditorium to record the grand piano, 65daysofstatic are quite proud to have you listen to their latest effort.”

“It is with heavy hearts that we tell you all that Aereogramme have decided to split up. Reasons are multiple and complex. It is however fair to say that the never ending financial struggle coupled with an almost superhuman ability to dodge the zeitgeist have taken their toll, ensuring that we just don’t have any fight left in us.

We are immensely proud of the four albums that we made over the past seven years. We hope that they continue to grow in your hearts. We plan to honour and celebrate the beautiful friendships we have made along the way with these final shows over the summer.

MAY
30th Aberdeen Musichall*
31st Edinburgh Potterrow*

JUNE
1st Glasgow Barrowlands*
16th Glasgow QMU
23rd Hurricane Festival. Scheesel, Germany
24th Southside Festival. Neuhausen, Germany

JULY
27th Omas Teich Festival. Grossefehn, Germany

AUGUST
31st Connect Festival. Inverary, Scotland.

*Main support to Biffy Clyro

We would like you all to consider our headline show at the QMU in Glasgow to be our farewell UK show and to view The Connect Festival in Inverary as a damn fine opportunity for everyone to see The Jesus And Marychain.

The Omas Teich festival is ironically our first festival headline slot. We would love to say goodbye to as many of our German friends as possible here. Flowers will be graciously accepted at all performances.

Finally we want to thank you all for listening to our music and coming to our shows over the years. You have given us a glimpse of something truly special.

Aereogramme. x.”

Well, it’s not like I didn’t see this coming at all. Having been following the band through most of their career arc, I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen them live many, many times in many different venues and cities and countries. Every album has seen a progression for the better and I know the music has affected a lot of people. But sometimes that’s not enough to fund a business that pays any bills, let alone the bills.

So I’ll travel back for the Glasgow show. I’d already considered doing so, as I was longing to see the band one more time in front of the home audience–it really is a world away from the audiences I stand amongst in Holland, and normally for the better. There’s not much chance of me heading to any festivals, and I’m not sure that’s the way I’d like to see the band anyway. A good show in Glasgow in suffice.

Anyway, since it finally forced my hand to get back to posting on the site, I figured I better include some token music. And since this is what the band is doing this summer, here it is…

mp3: Aereogramme - Dissolve

mp3: Nirgilis - Lucky Star
mp3: Nirgilis - Mayonaka No Shyunaidaa
mp3: Nirgilis - Eregiba
web: Nirgilis Official Website

Those lucky few who know me, know that I strongly dislike pop music. Especially – American or Western top 40. Not only do I despise it, I also rue and lament it. The same corporate monster that created this music nurtures it, feeds it, and makes sure that the machine of consumerism and capitalism is running smoothly, thoroughly crushing any breath of individuality and creativity in modern music. So it is in this vein that I make the following confession. Brace yourself.
I am addicted to Japanese pop music. I know I know. In a lot of ways it’s worse than what we have going on here in the US: bands are often cultivated en masse, great, corporate (typically television corporations) greenhouses where bands are literally planted. One after another they are produced, all bubble gum and frothing over with Disneyesque innocence and charm. They rule morning television, with often just a turnstile at their core – much like Menudo was in the 80’s; you age out and either move on to a ready-made solo career, or you fade into obscurity. But that’s not all of them.
Some bands are taking the Western pop formula and rewriting it, reworking it. Where once there was an homage to the 80’s and 90’s boy bands and spice girls, there is now an ever-expanding alternative that is changing the face of pop music as we know it. It’s pop with substance. Oh my head.

Take Nirgilis for example. You would classify them as alternative pop. They write their own music (Gasp!). They play their own instruments (Gasp!). They formed in university, and have remained a band at core despite having had no record deal or industry support, and with more than 20 members having come and gone in the nearly ten years they worked for a hit. More importantly, despite the electronic bleeps reminiscent of 1980’s house, techno and pop, they are good. Really good. Their sound is comprised of an assortment of loops layered over guitars and drum kit, and are reminiscent of everything from Rilo Kiley and the Fiery Furnaces to the club hit of the week. The lead singer often sounds like a Japanese Kay Hanley, with a greater range and decent lung capacity to boot. Their hooks are solid, songs are catchy, and each album has a song on it for your every mood.
Nirgilis is at the forefront of a new music “movement” sweeping through Asia of late. Called mash-rise, or better translated, mashed-up, it involves taking two entirely different songs and combining them into one song. It’s not quite sampling, it’s not even homogenous – both songs (and sometimes more) are oft played concurrent to each other: at the same time to the same music. These mash-ups can either be two songs written by the same entity, or an original paired with another popular song.
A perfect example of this is their international hit single “Sakura (Cherry Blossom)”, which many western folks may know as an opening theme to the popular anime “Eureka 7”. A really infectious chorus makes you almost forget the operatic rendition of “Amazing Grace” running through it. (And if that gets to be too much, the Sakura single features the non-mash-rise version for your auditory pleasure.)
Nirgilis has two albums and an assortment of EP singles. The mp3’s above are from their album New Standard. They are mild compared to some of their other records. Their latest album Girl features Peter Hook of New Order, and samples are currently streaming at their website. (Be forewarned though, they haven’t an English-language home on the web.)
So what with my current musical excursion, you can be sure to expect more from me in the near future on Japanese pop (and not so pop, I like some perdy weird stuff). Until then, enjoy Nirgilis.

Buy.

mp3: Black Albino

website: http://www.gargleblastrecords.com

I’ve had the Desert Hearts album Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki since last year and have completely failed to mention it. Feeling slightly guilty about that, above is a download link for their new single (temporarily free).

mp3: Exits

website: http://www.aereogramme.co.uk

So tonight is the night.  I haven’t had an Aereogramme show since July 2005, and even that was only a brief support slot. Plus tonight is my first taste of new Aereogramme: less screamy, an extra computer manipulator, and a lot more percussive, so I hear.

Just in case you’re clueless as to who or what the band are (even though I go on about them all the time), this is what I knocked out for the newspaper last week:

“There seems to be a growing notion that this dynamic Scottish rock quartet have undergone a change of direction in recent times. It may be true to an extent. While the band have traditionally attracted followers from the heavy music scene, and have enjoyed links to metal titans like Isis–last autumn saw the release of a collaborative mini-album as part of local distributor Konkurrent’s long-running In the Fishtank series–their brand new album My Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go does away with much of the loud guitars and guttural screams, replacing them with layers of strings, piano and poignant lyrics. The flipside of the coin is that these elements were always a major part of Aereogramme’s make-up, only the moments of raw intimacy were always countered by furious eruptions of noise. With much of that direct aggression removed, the metal fans are left scratching their heads. For the rest of us still bewitched by their cinematic efforts–the album title is taken from The Exorcist novel, while many tracks take inspiration from celluloid moments–this is surely the out-of-town gig of the week.”

So I’ve stuck an mp3 online in tribute. Titled ‘Exits’, it’s one of the softest tracks on the album but it’s really nice. There were a couple of other tracks I immediately considered, but they were a tad too epic, and the band aren’t as progressive about sharing music online as I am, so I’d have felt a little guilty using the album’s cornerstone tracks on a blog. Still, ‘Exits’ is lovely and gives a good taster for where the band are at these days. And if you like it, there’s even better stuff on the album.

Oh, and despite my killer schedule lately, I managed to revamp their official site recently - nothing fancy, but it represents their new album artwork pretty well. So feel free to click on the link at the top and check it out. There aren’t many websites that let you kill off band members by clicking on their picture, but I think it’s a growing market. Course, I did all this after the band went out on tour, so they probably haven’t even remembered that they have an official website. There goes my chances of picking up all the free swag. Bah.

Buy.

mp3: Nothing To Be Done
no longer updated website: The Pastels

This always reminds me of someone at university, who will remain nameless, but was terribly self-conscious and cool-conscious the whole time I knew him, always making sure everyone knew what he was listening to, why he was listening to it and why it was important we knew why he was listening to it. So imagine my shock when finally getting round to listening to something he recommended that wasn’t Pearl Jam (The Daily Mail had caught on by this point - Grunge kids don’t have meals! They eat pizza!) or the Loveless-era drear of My Bloody Valentine, and it actually being good; I wasn’t sure what to do.

I only know a little about The Pastels, which is actually illegal in Glasgow and can result in being barred from Sleazy’s, but I think I can get away with it to an international audience.

What a sweet song. In a way, it’s almost too sweet, sickly mellow, as someone else I didn’t like from university, used to say. No, I didn’t like anyone much at university. 1993 was a funny year; we stayed in a flat with no radiators (which meant I walked about with a hot water bottle round my neck, like some elderly Flavor Flav), watched the crowds come and go to the Rangers games down the road, and had a direct view of the linedancers leaving the Grand Ol’ Opry across the road every Friday. My flatmate’s bedroom skylight looked directly onto a huge stone angel on the roof of the restaurant building opposite, which would cause all sorts of perturbation for the first few months when it was in the corner of your eye. This song whisks me back there immediately: so what you say, we go and get a beer?

Buy.

mp3: Live Set
web: The Vegas Valentinos

There has been much talk about the albums of this last year, and even though I’m probably not the most objective, or best person to review this, I am loathe to close the book on the music of 2006 without having something to say about the Vegas Valentinos Five and Dime Quartet.

The band is four guys out of New England who love rock, soul, blues, punk and anything to fall out of the hallowed halls of Stax or Sun Records. So it makes perfect sense that the 14 tracks were recorded in Memphis (at Sun), debuted at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame show and then premiered at Baltimore’s Night of 100 Elvises. It also makes perfect sense that despite a modern rock sound with heavy contemporary influences, the music harkens back to that familiar place.

The Five and Dime Quartet, as with all three previous efforts, is a jumping, energetic album, heavily sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor that translates beautifully to their live shows. From the open strains of “Springer” (an ode to the debauched television show) to “Games to Play” (a lament on a love grown cold) the VV’s give us their best, and you just have to love it. Even their covers of the Shods’ “The Zig”, and their ingenious medley of a Louis Prima and an Elvis song “Buena Sera/Kiss Me Quick” demonstrates their mastery of the musical medium.

Okay, so maybe I’m not the most objective reviewer here. After all, I am related to three of the four members of the band, and the bass player is well, Dad. However, this band is dynamic, and they can make the worst song a great song. Or at the very least make you laugh at it. They are a must-see live spectacle. You judge the quality of a band not only on its studio output, but most importantly on its live effort: this band has fun. They make good, often great music that is as much a joy to hear as it is for them to make it.

Above is a link to a live set you can find on their website.

I hope you like it.

Buy.

mp3: Heretics

Well, why not, I mean it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it, bless him.

Much like the tolerance zones cities have for prostitutes and their clients to conduct their business in a safer and possibly more morally conducive environment, The Tool Shed has cleaned its kerbside, provided bins and adequate street-lighting and now they’ve allowed Andrew to strut his stuff in a seductive manner with the above, a real honest-to-goodness clean as a whistle .mp3 of Heretics for bloggers to link to without worrying about the moral repercussions.

So on you go.

Also, here are the European tour dates, with a new Dublin and Scando date. Nice to see him sold out in London and Paris.

MARCH 19 // Dublin, Ireland
CrawDaddy - another show added!

MARCH 20 // Galway, Ireland
Roisin Dubh

MARCH 21 // Dublin, Ireland
CrawDaddy

MARCH 22 // London, England
Bush Hall - SOLD OUT

MARCH 23 // Brussels, Belgium
Botanique

MARCH 24 // Gothenburg, Sweden
Club Woody @ Pusterviksbaren

MARCH 25 // Stockholm, Sweden
Kagelbanan/Sodra Teatern

MARCH 29 // Paris, France
La Maroquinerie - SOLD OUT

MARCH 30 // Amiens, France
Musique de Jazz et d’Ailleurs Festival

MARCH 31 // Benicassim, Spain
CinemaScore

mp3: Heat Seeker

website: http://www.thespores.com/

The first time I heard The Spores, I got pretty excited. They ticked a bunch of boxes that have worked well with me throughout my music history: girl singer, fuzzy guitars, electronics, big pop melodies…

Here is some text I previously published in the paper, as it least provides some more practical information (not much, mind):

“She sounds more like an Irish pub than a real breathing person, but Molly Malone is in fact a pretty talented gal. Canadian but based in LA, she’s an artist, puppeteer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In fact, if you follow indie rock circles, you’ve probably seen her perform before. In the not too distant past, she’s worked with Mark Lanegan, Mondo Generator, Nick Oliveri, Queens of the Stone Age, and Frank Black, to name just a few. Even so, your chances of knowing her current band, The Spores, aren’t huge.”

I think the immediate thing for me is that songs like ‘Heat Seeker’ transport me back to the late ’90s, when Garbage still meant the world to me. And there are a few tracks on The Spores’ debut album Imagine the Future which send shivers up my spine for that very reason - even though The Spores are nowhere near as over-produced or hyped. Other parts of the album take a more electronic route, and having only dabbled in it so far, I’m not completely smitten. But there’s potential here, and the scattering of songs I really like will encourage me to return and give it more opportunities to impress me.

And if you’re still looking for practical information, they’re currently on tour with the Eagles of Death Metal, possibly/probably with puppets in tow.

Buy? I’m sure the album is available somewhere. I previously saw it on http://www.youmakemusic.com/ but at the time of writing, that site is offline.

mp3: Viva Voce - Birds on the Wing
mp3: Viva Voce - Alive with Pleasure
mp3: Viva Voce - From the Devil Himself

web: Official “Word of Mouth”

So here’s the thing. I love this band. I don’t really know why.
Perhaps it’s the upbeat way in which they chant, “we do not fuck around” in the song of the same name. Maybe it’s their occasional piano-bar sing-a-long gone wrong sound. Maybe it’s the way they sound somehow familiar, a conglomerate of beloved bands past: somehow part Apples in Stereo, part Mama’s and the Papas, part Delgados, part Polyphonic Spree, part Flaming Lips. Do I hear piano strains from The Rocky Horror Picture Show? A little Kim Deal patois? Perhaps.

In any case Viva Voce are great. Originally from Arkansas they now reside in Portland, Oregon, where they create beautiful music together. Literally. The band is Anita and Kevin Robinson, a couple who met at a concert in 1998, and by 2001 were releasing Lovers, Lead the Way!, recovering from a scrape with the record industry, and oh yeah, were married. After touring about the planet, they returned to their living room and began writing more fabulous songs you want to clap along to releasing a second album The Heat Can Melt Your Brain in 2004 and Get Yr Blood Sucked Out in 2006.

One moment sentimental, the next psychedelic, the next dark and melancholy, the songs are infectious and enjoyable: a happy cacophony of guitars, drums, keys, vocals with the occasional samples and loops. “Birds on the Wing” is from Lovers, Lead the Way!, “Alive with Pleasure” is from The Heat Can Melt Your Brain and “From the Devil Himself” is from Get Yr Blood Sucked Out.

I hope you like it.

Buy.

mp3: Narcolepsy
mp3: Army
mp3: Rock This Bitch (live)

website: http://www.benfolds.com/

So Ben Folds plays in Amsterdam on Tuesday night. The last time I saw him live was a couple of weeks before I moved to Holland, playing Barrowlands with the Divine Comedy. Considering that it was a pretty expensive show and I pretty much hate(d) the Divine Comedy, it showed how much I really loved seeing Ben live, and even though it was a split billing, the majority of the audience seemed to share a similar viewpoint as me.

Well, I may not be at Tuesday’s show, simply because it’s also very expensive and I may not be able to afford four trips to Amsterdam in one week, but the prospect has had me listening to my old Ben Folds Five records again.

They were a great band. I think back when they first began breaking into the UK scene, I didn’t like them. I can’t remember why. Either way, it didn’t last long because I had the ‘Underground’ single and then all of their albums, and was witness to a handful of amazing live shows too. Partly it was because Ben Folds Five were a band with incredible chemistry and musicianship, and partly it was because they (Folds in particular) were a bunch of fools, so they’d be silly, jump up and down on pianos, throw around stools and make up songs on the spot. All traits that really appealed to me.

Their final album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner is my favourite, just because it’s such a complete work. There’s no real filler in it, just substance, and what more can you ask from an album? That’s why I’ve opted to share two tracks from it–’Narcolepsy’ is all grand and sweeping, while ‘Army’ plays more of the comedy card, yet was still a great single and the ideal introduction to the album. Also ‘Army’ strikes me as a good companion piece to The Decemberists’ ‘16 by 32′.

I’ve actually been comparing BFF and The Decemberists a lot in my head lately. There are similarities, both in songwriting style and execution. The main difference is that Meloy’s lyrics play in my mind like a screenplay and Fold’s fictional tales almost always end up in the first person.

Anyway, I’ve also included a live version of ‘Rock This Bitch’, recorded during an Australian tour with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. You’re better listening to it than reading me trying to explain it, but it’s basically this improv piece that turns up regularly at shows, only in this version he has an orchestra to pull along too. Good fun.

Buy.

So the new Andrew Bird album, Armchair Apocrypha, leaked on the internet this week. I really wouldn’t have known, but suddenly AB began leaping up the elbo.ws ranking, as seen on the right hand side of this page, and that raised my suspicions. So I immediately went out into the wide world and downloaded it.

Which isn’t it to say I’ve listened to it or intended on sharing it. With some releases I develop an irrational block, and while I’m gleeful at having a copy of the album on my computer, part of the joy stems from it just being there, if I wanted to hear it.

If you do wish to hear it, it’s probably not difficult to find. And even if you’re just looking for samples–I already provided plenty of live excerpts in 2006–you can easily look here for a list of bloggers covering it. It’s not without controversy, however, as a representative of AB has been requesting bloggers hold back on posting. You can read the whole thing here. It makes for an interesting read, with decent arguments from both sides. Not all that I’d agree with, but it’s worth going through.

My personal feeling is that downloads can only benefit an artist of AB’s stature. Those excited about the release and downloading it before the release date were already going to purchase it. Those who were merely curious about his work stand a good chance of falling head-over-heels for it–I’ve only seen positive responses for it so far–and in turn buying it when it’s released. As for those who were never going to buy it, well you can’t really regard them as a lost sale. It’s not always clean cut, but it’s how I feel it is regarding AB. Only time will tell.

Putting sales aside, another argument I’ve heard from some (of my favourite) artists, is that their art is being tainted by listening to inferior quality rips, or only hearing the album piece-by-piece by way of blogs. Then I’d ask those artists to consider that a large chunk of those who’ll support their art will be listening to it via computers, mp3 players, cars, or even just crap Hi-Fis, even if they did pay for a CD copy. And if audio quality is so crucial, why do so many of these same artists then allow audio streams–be they Flash or Real Audio–which are lesser quality than mp3s? How is that a vital introduction to your art?

I know my own view point is pretty warped and irrational in parts. Why else would I download albums then not listen to them? But when you look at it from the angle of artists I wasn’t so passionate about it, then labels would be losing sales from me without downloading. Twelve new CDs have come into my life this month. The majority of which I’d never have touched without downloading them first.

Why trust media? Why trust journalists? Why trust other kids sitting behind a computer? Why trust me? I love writing about music, and I love getting passionate about something and introducing others to it, but words only go so far. The purpose of this site is asking others to listen for themselves. I know too well from personal experience. All I have to do is turn around and face the CD racks behind me, and dotted around them are countless albums from the mid- to late-nineties and early-2000s, of which I was sold on two or three great songs, while the rest of the tracks are dull tripe. I own over 1000 CDs. Lots now sit in uncared for piles because they’re worth nothing to me. Owning EVERYTHING is no longer that important to me. There’s less money to go around, so wasting it on average/poor albums isn’t an option. Therefore, other than those artists I truly trust (Andrew Bird being one of them), I won’t buy physical products until I’ve explored whether they’re something I really need/want. A cloudy issue, sure, but it’s that or I buy nothing. Which would labels prefer?

In the grand scheme of things, the AB leak is quite a small thing–admittedly not to those involved, but still. Also leaked was the new Arcade Fire album, and I still cringe thinking about the Fall Out Boy quotes this week. While I barely know anything them and have only heard one song before, their arrogance is almost enough for me to download their album, not listen to it, and just keep it shared so that anyone can grab it. But I won’t, as effectively I’m lazy.

Anyway, thanks to the leak, it’s now possible to pre-order AB’s album from the American label. If not, you can glimpse the pretty artwork.