Songs to Learn and Sing with Swervedriver

Adam Franklin, vocais e guitarras, Jimmy Hartridge, guitarra, Adi Vines, baixo, Graham Bonnar, bateria formaram uma das maiores e mais cultuadas bandas da clássica era do shoegazer nada mais nada menos do que o grande, mais muito grande Swervedriver, quantas a quantas vezes ouvi o clássico Raise, ou o fenomenal Mezcal Head, o emblematico Ejector Seat Reservation e o gran finale com 99th Dream todos albuns de cabeceira deste que vos escreve, coisa de fã, coisa de quem se trancou inumeras vezes em estudio para tocar Sandblasted, Ravedown, Son of Mustang Ford e por ai vai...

Uma das minhas grandes obsessões foi sempre obter o máximo de bootlegs dos caras, porque em cima do palco eles sempre tiveram a fama de fazer shows destruidores e isso faz-se valer basicamente em todos os bootlegs dos quais eu tive a chance de ouvir, sendo assim resolvi selecionar um em especial, datado de 1992 epoca do debut Raise e este show fazer parte da turne do Swervedriver pelos EUA e Canada, sintam o drama do set list:

Sunset
Sci-flyer
Sandblasted
Deep Seat
Ravedown
She´s Beside Herself
Son of Mustang Ford
Looking at You (MC5)
Down on the Street (The Stooges)
T.V. Eye (The Stooges)

Precisa dizer alguma coisa há mais????? Clássico atrás de clássico e no fim 3 esporros sonoros, nada mais justo do que os mais selvagens shoegazers homenagearem os mais selvagens dos selvagens, Detroit Rock City.

Digo o seguinte, pegue o showzinho e veja/sinta o que seria apreciar um espetaculo desses....magistral!!!!!

Swervedriver - Live at Lee Palace - Toronto, Canada

Kill All Hippies with Stellarium

Prediletissimos da casa, socios de carteirinha, estes são alguns termos que o mestre Fabio Massari usava para descrever aquelas bandas que basicamente dispensam maiores apresentações, e esses termos podem ser usados para o grande Stellarium que é referencia dentre a bandas mais barulhentas da atualidade.

Desta vez o noise destruidor aparece com um bootleg daqueles, show bombastico intitulado Live at To Here Knows When: A Shoegaze Weekend At The Esplanade, com direto a uma cover version grandiosa de Alison do Slowdive, incluindo os petardos já conhecidos Fader, Any Day is Fine, Padle Pop até o final destruidor com Dead Nebula.

Showzaço para colecionadores!!!!

Stellarium - Live at To Here Know When: A Shoegazer Weekend at The Esplanade

House Tornado by The Joy Formidable

Post em homenagem ao meu chapa Al Schenkel do barulhento Sussuros e Escarros, este aqui é para ilustrar a adoração tanto dele quanto minha a esta bandaça com o sugestivo nome The Joy Formidable que já apareceu aqui com o debut A Ballon Called Moaning e agora retorna com um bootleg mezzo oficial mezzo pirata, chamado First You Have to Get Mad, outro titulo altamente explicativo e que fala por si só, uma pancada rapida barulhenta, estridente, grudenta e sexy, afinal estamos lidando com a loiraça Ritzy Bryan comandando a festa, o set list é basicamente fincado no debut que dá a entender o quão sensacional deve ser um show do Joy Formidable, na trinca de abertura o jogo já esta ganho The Greatest Lights is The Greatest Shade, Cradle e The Last Drop, mas o momento sublime é Austere com a galera cantando e gemendo em unissono, em inumeros momentos imagens de Throwing Muses passam pela minha cabeça quando os ouço....alias um mix de Muses e Raveonettes....simplesmente impagavel.

SHOWZAÇO!!!!

The Joy Formidable - First You Have to Get Mad

Pieces of Life's Lost Lovers by Astral

Dave Han, vocais e guitarras, Sam Black, baixo, Marl Loftin, bateria, ou se você preferir simplesmente Astral, novamente aparecem por essas paginas com seu novissimo EP o fulminante Excerpts From Down The Rabbit Hole, Walk and Talk é candidata a musica do ano, porque? Escute e sinta o drama do mais perfeito pos punk aliado ao mais puro shoegazer, ainda tem a alucinogena Journey To The Center Of The Fold, o lado Cure da banda pede passagem em Narcissus, baixo gravissimo, vocais estridentes ao melhor estilo Robert Smith nos idos de Faith e Pornography, fechando o finissimo EP Until the Day é densa, tensa e gelida lembrando Sleepwalker o album fenomenal lançado no ano passado que se você ainda não ouviu pega aqui e não perca mais tempo.

Quando o EP acaba é sensato colocar Walk and Talk novamente mais alto e assim sucessivamente.

Astral - Experts From Down The Rabbit Hole

Noise´s Nightmare with Nac Hut Report

Imaginem um pesadelo sendo conduzido sombriamente por Einstürzende Neubauten e Jesus & Mary Chain/My Bloody Valentine com Lydia Lunch nos vocais tudo conduzido abrasivamente por feixes de guitarras assassinos, vocais sexys e malditos, batidas tribais, imagens de um colapso eminente, tudo isso certamente deve ser digerido por poucos privilegiados mesmo porque isso não é feito para a massa, mas sim para os lunaticos, psicoticos, e dementes de plantão, ou simplesmente para quem não esta interessado na mesmice, assim é o duo italo-polones Nac Hut Report que vem com esse debut assombrossamente colossal intitulado 9th Overflowing...Milky Slaughterhouse...Dream Of Incubator, 9 canções para se consumir ou ser consumido por elas, sem espaços para destaques ou altos e baixos, obra linear e que provoca até os mais ardorosos fans de Blixa Bargeld e afins. Essencial.

Ah sim, logo mais deve vir entrevista e tudo mais com Brigitte Roussel e LI/ese/LI, e antes que me perguntem o convite a esta audição veio diretamente da banda por email, ainda bem que sou um cara privilegiado...

Nac Hut Report - 9th Overflowing...Milky Slaughterhouse...Dream Of Incubator

Noise´s Revenge by Between The Cities Are Stars - An Interview

Fuzz, Overdrive, Distortions, Delays, barulho, caos, destruição, J&MC, Skywave, MBV, VU, tudo devidamente em estado bruto e lo-fi, os caçulas do noise e revelação maxima deste ano de 2010 são os americanos do Between The Cities Are Stars. O pessoal da banda é gente finissima diga-se de passagem, através do Myspace tomei conhecimento de banda e comecei uma amizade bacanerrima com o Kyle, guitarra e vocal desta banda que vai agradar ao talo os amantes das referencias acima e mais, para quem esta sedento por novidades de qualidade o Between The Cities Are Stars veio para preencher facilmente qualquer tipo de vazio em seus ouvidos com o maximo de barulho que voce conseguir suportar, isso sem contar que mês que vem tem album dos caras, e para preencher a curiosidade, um pouco da historia, preferencias e logicamente algumas canções para destruir os timpanos, escute All That Mad Trouble, Another Tuesday Night e Starstreamer e tente ficar imune.

***** Interview with Between The Cities Are Stars *****

Q. When did Between the Cities are Stars form, tell us about the beginning…
A. It Started in 05' after an old band I was in ended. Heather and I moved up to Oakland, Ca with a digital recorder and a dream, lol. Once we got settled, we began writing and working on new sounds and songs, similar to our favorite bands. As the story goes, we had a hard time with drummers. A few years later, Heather and I were living in LA while I was going to school and we ran into an old high school friend who ended up playing drums with us for a few months. It sounded great but things didn't work out there so we were using the old faithful drum machine for a while. When Heather & I moved back home to Central Ca, we continued playing and found Jen along with an awesome scene of people. It's been the three of us since November 2009.

Q. What are the band’s influences?
A. 80's & 90's shoegaze bands are a big influence along with 70's and 80's post punk/ hardcore punk bands and alternative rock bands from the 90's and 50's rock n roll.

Q. How you describe the sounds?
A. We were once told it sounded like Pink Floyd on steroids but we feel its more like noisy, fuzzed out, space rock.

Q. Tell us about the recording process for the forthcoming ep?
A. After a month of playing together, we did a live ep in December at Drunk Tank Studios and decided we wanted to go track by track rather than live. After that, we Practiced A LOT and then decided to record a nine song cd. We recorded track by track in February and mixed in March at DTS. The songs are getting mastered now and the cd should be out in May sometime.

Q. What´s your 5 favourites albums from all time...
A. The dreaded question....haha. For me, it would have to be "Loveless", "Synthstatic", "Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star ", "Psychocandy" and "Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to", in no real order. These are a must for any road trip. As a band, we really have lots of interests and making strange, new, rocking noise people might find interesting.

Q, Tell us about playing live.
A. Live is a lot of fun. When the project first started it was mostly, I guess, what most would call a four track band. In the sense that it was tracks layered on top of tracks in one day after maybe one too many "smokes". When we moved back to the valley, we finally found people that just wanted to make something like us and not try and be something other then what they are, and have had a great time doing it. We all come from different musical backgrounds which makes it lots of fun.

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?
A. Covers are still TBA. One that's been a work in progress is house of the Rising Sun by the Animals. On the other hand, we are working on some new material too.

Q. Which new bands you recommended?
A. Stellarium, Go Bezerk, Amazing Reverb Engine, Was She A Vampire, Bloody Knives, CREATIONIST, Roma Soddam, The History of Colour Tv. There are so many great, new bands coming out, it's hard to keep up with them all.


Q. What are the plans for the future?
A. More and more shows, the next couple of months get busy around here so we hope to be as well. Along with getting some cover songs in our set list and writing new material.

Q. Any important news to tell us…
A. We have a full length record coming out in May along with a 5 way split with Stellarium, Suicide Party, Bloody Knives, and Was She A Vampire coming out in May as well on Killredrocketsrecords that will be available for free as a download. Thanks Renato for the interview in" The blog that celebrates itself".
*
*
*
Thanks Kyle....keep the noise man!!!

www.myspace.com/betweenthecitiesarestars

Between The Cities Are Stars - 3 Songs

The Mighty Lemon Drops by Lemon´s Chair

Albuns instrumentais sem vocais são por deveras dificies de serem apreciados por este que vos escreve, não por nada pessoal, mas é que raramente estes me pegam de jeito, creio que o ultimo que me destroçou por completo com o Young Team do Mogwai, verdadeira obra prima da musica, desde então nenhum album com esta tematica 100% instrumental havia me deixado de queixo caido, mas eis que o Japão com sua efervescente cena shoegazer, chega ao topo novamente através deste trio absolutamente inspirado sob alcunha de Lemon´s Chair e uma obra prima chamada I Hate? I Hope? album 100% instrumental mas diferentemente da maioria dos albuns neste estilo, isto não é post rock, e sim shoegazer, shoegazer em sua essencia, guitarras, guitarras, paredes sonoras belissimas, fundo etereo, pancadaria para os anjos dançarem, assim é Swallowtail um espectro de beleza, força e candura, Halcyon vislumbra o paraiso e a rendeção com Vividness e seus mais de 12 minutos de esplendor, fizeram com que eu me rendesse novamente ao headphones, porque de acordo com Jonn, meu amigo do SoulSeek, isto aqui é feito para se ouvir bem alto com seus headphones bem ajustados ao seu ouvido para que nada, absolutamente nada fuja das perpecções de seu cerebro e mente.

Lemon´s Chair - I Hate? I Hope?

Leave Them All Behind with Sennen

2010 começou com tudo, albuns fenomenais já foram lançados, Air Formation, B.R.M.C. Thrushes, Veil Veil Vanish, Butterfly Explosion, Dum Dum Girls, Radio Dept., Serena Maneesh e outros que estam prestes a sair Insect Guide, Ceremony isso só para ficar nos mais aguardados, e para se juntar aos grandes lançamentos o novissimo Age of Denial dos ingleses do Sennen é daqueles albuns de se ouvir inumeras vezes e saborear lentamente as texturas, os detalhes, as nuances, as guitarras, as melodias, seja por vezes mais estridentes por outras mais 60´s, a diferença de Age of Denial para o debut Widows é notadamente sentida, enquanto Widows era climatico e denso, Age of Denial se apoia na melodia 60´s e o lado "pop" se aflora a cada canção pega Innocence ou A Little High e sinta a diferença. Ride (Age of Denial e With You) , Spacemen 3 (Can´t See the Light), B.R.M.C. (SOS), Spiritualized (Spleep Heavy Tonight) são referências encontradas durante a audição, aqui o Sennen caminha a passos largos para se firmar na linha de frente do shoegazer britânico atual.

Sennen - Age of Denial (part I)
Sennen - Age of Denial (part II)

Soundhead by One Unique Signal - An Interview

Prediletissimos deste que vos escreve, não é novidade que o desconcertante mundo caótico em que vivemos contribue veementente para que a teoria do caos esteja mais presente do nunca, e é exatamente da matriz do caos que o One Unique Signal conduz a criação perfeita para compor a trilha do fim do mundo, os caras já são basicamente socios de carteirinha aqui do TBTCI, via as duas passagens arrasadoras aqui e aqui, e agora o ultimo registro da OUS é o espetacular EP Villains to a Man, entrando cada vez mais de cabeça na desconstrução da canção através dos conceitos de kraut, post punk, art noise e wall of sound, Jaded, Plasticism e Villains evocam um verdadeiro eletrochoque entre NEU!, PIL, Loop em alta combustão, sem direito a respiração, musica esquizofrenica para pessoas fora de controle, cuidado ao ouvir quando não se encontrar em perfeito estado de consciencia pois as consequencias podem ser aterrorizantes e fatais.

Aproveitando todo o fanatismo criado por mim, convidei a banda através de Nick para fazermos uma entrevista e dai fiquei sabendo que os caras usualmente passeiam por estas paginas e os elogios me deixaram mais fã ainda, dai a entrevista rolou e tornou-se uma das mais clássicas a passar por aqui, vejam bem o porque o OUS é essa esbornia sonora.

***** Interview with One Unique Signal *****

Q. When did OUS form, tell us about the beginning…
NICK: The band was originally begun in 2000 by myself, Dean Knight (Silent Front/Ternary) and Khyam Allami (solo artist / Knifeworld / Art of Burning Water). It was named Windomn Chikarah back then and after a few splits, fallouts and new arrivals, One Unique Signal was born somewhere around 2002.
MESSENGER: Well for me the band started around three years ago, but I like to think I've had my hand in this pie for quite some time. Back in the day I used to be in a band called Furr, with Nick’s Sister Louise and other half Anji. At the time we practiced at a legendary rehearsal studio called Riot Club. (Run by another Myth Lee 'if I die on my bike I'll take plenty of people with me' Farrow) The dogs body for when Lee was off on an adventure, was Lee 'little lee' Barber, the first Drummer/Singer for OUS. In a band with Nick, they had the bones but they needed the heart for this attack on the senses that would be One Unique Signal. I knew just the man, a man of courage, a man of whit, a man of style that put even me to shame. He couldn't do it so I told them about my good friend James Beal (Bass), and they got on like a house on fire. OUS was born.
DAN: I joined in the 2006 evolution of sound.
JIM: OUS has lost good men over time; 1 to metal obsession; 1 to Manchester; 1 to a social whirl and 1 to the fields. The current line up is Hygge (as they say in Denmark)

Q. What are the band’s influences?
NICK: Main influences for me are the noisier indie bands of the late 80s early 90s but it’s far far more extensive than just that particular genre. I think we wear our music taste very much on our sleeve but there are other more subtle things if you listen out for them. On the Dismemberment EP we focused most on the Drums and spent a significant amount of time (far more than on any of the other instruments) getting a huge sound more akin to a Post Hardcore band than you would normally apply to a shoegaze or indie outfit. Everything from Converge to the gentle minimalism of Mark Hollis / Talk Talk.
BYRON: Mysticism, perpetual motion, the 60 cycle hum of modern society, the desire and willingness to create art, the act of listening to music everyday, knowledge of perception, a vague threat of mental illness, a desire to manifest the physical as sound, the need to make sound a physicality, ten foot fucking speakers, mortality.
JIM: From a non-musical point of view it seems that (in no particular order); Rip this Joint nights, Olives, Red Wine, Vinyl, Eric Fromm, Brentford FC, Electronic bastardization, Cranberry juice, Free food, Discussing, Maps, Real Cider, analog photography, flapjacks, taking guitars apart, disagreeing for the sake of it. Musically I think the one thing we seem to all do is never decide what set we’re going to play until we’re on stage.
MESSENGER: Nick and Bryon.
DAN: Large mix, makes it unique.

Q. How you describe OUS sounds?
NICK: Our basic starting blocks are repetition and volume. During gigs, dependant on the environment and individual states of mood and/or intoxication, this can either result in an all encompassing hypnotic vibration that people can emerse themselves in or it descends into utter cacaphony and can lead to people turning on their heels with fingers in their ears.
BYRON: All noise is equal, but some sounds are more equal than others.
MESSENGER: I don't know I never take my ear plugs out, so I've never really heard it!
DAN: Loud, repetition and ting.
JIM: Too hard. Next question.

Q. Tell us about the recording process Tribe Castle & Nation album?
NICK: We hired out the rehearsal room we were using at the time for 2 weekends and got our friends to record us. It was a nice set up because instead of paying them in cash, we bought equipment for them. The system they employed meant that each band they recorded did the same thing with the result being that over time they were able to amass a good amount of studio gear. Subsequent recordings achieved better results because of the higher quality equipment. We still work with them today in fact, Dan DNA (Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom) / Wayne Pennell (Ursa/Ternary). They have gone on to set up a studio on a small industrial estate. My memory of recording that album is having a great laugh with friends coming and going throughout the days we were there. I also remember recording my parts too quickly. In retrospect I could have taken a bit longer working out how to be a tad more creative. The mixing was a nightmare! We got halfway through and lost all our work in a hard drive crash. In total we spent a year and 3 months from recording to street release, by which time 2 of the band had walked.
DAN: I heard they used two digital eight tracks together.
NICK: It was two Tascam 16 tracks. I think they’ve died now.
JIM: 4 days in a dark industrial unit with friends. Chocolate croissants and earl grey. Wrongen’ drawings. Early starts without achieving anything until late. Hurt fingers. Learning how to play for recording. Scarce daylight. Iraqi shaker. A big little G. Hanging Lee to the sounds of an autoharp!

Q. To me, the latest EP Villains to a Man is the best OUS release do you agree?
BYRON: For now. We continue to learn and the next one will be better.
NICK: We’re very mindful to be as happy as we can be with the recordings before releasing them as this means everyone is confident in the music we are putting our name to. It also means that as we look back over our releases we know that each is a perfect snapshot of where we were at, at any given time. VtaM sounds to me like we are beginnging to settle in with our sound. We had calmed down from the previous EP. The tracks on Dismemberment have a real energy about them and you can hear the band eager to start afresh and get something released with the new line up. You can hear everyone itching to smack people around the ears! VtaM seems to summarise the sound of OUS since it’s beginnings. Plasticism is similar to the self indulgence shown on Soldiers Prayerbook from ‘Tribe, Castle & Nation’, Jaded sounds like it could have been on the debut single Lowry and Villains is us taking the ideas we had with Hackeyed and just running off in all directions.
MESSENGER: Yes!
DAN: Yes, and the last one (Dismemberment). I am biased though.
JIM: You should never favour one of your children!

Q, Tell us about playing live.
BYRON: This is a strange question - Writing about live music suddenly seems to make as much sense as singing about books...
MESSENGER: It's all about the audience, you can make plenty of mistakes but if everyone is ripping their hair out and biting each other, then you'll always come away thinking it was a good gig. Often you can never really hear well onstage; if you can, and it sounds good then it's fun. If you can't and people still enjoy it that’s great. If they both come together, well, I've seen grown men cry.
DAN: Keep rigid as possible. I’ts the best bit!
NICK: We rehearse so often that we have built up the necessary telepathy needed to attack our live shows with a healthy balance of calm confidence and mindless arrogance.
I love playing shows. I don’t really dig all the other stuff involved like travelling and setting/packing up but who does? Frequently we allow ourselves to stray outside of the boundaries of the recorded songs with lots of our set based around nods of the head. The setlist is nearly always discussed/argued over whilst we’re on stage. Like I mentioned before, we aim for an above average volume and decided to buy a big industrial sized box of earpluggs that we sit next to the entrance for people who come to the shows. If we all use them we can’t expect other people not to want them too. I’m not sure if it was a good or bad thing but on the Telescopes tour there were a few occasions where Stephen actually had to give in and wear some! Actually, thinking about it, that can only be a good thing! Means we are pumelling the audience!!!

Q. How was the experience of playing with Stephen Lawrie? To me here´s a myth...how do feel about that?
MESSENGER: You have to watch that man, he stands on your pedals! But really he was just a nice bloke. He fit in really well, just like a sixth member, no hassle. Which is what you want really, it's often hard to find bands who do the same music, and even harder to find people you get on with, so the fact that these two come together was, destiny? Synchronicity?
JIM: It was fun. He’s a good guy. We’ll do more stuff I think.
NICK: I Loved it and we all had a great time. There was obviously a big concern about ensuring we delivered the set correctly to a paying audience. I’ve been listening to those songs for around two decades and wanted to make sure if I was in the crowd I’d have walked away pleased. I think the shows worked well. OUS make a big noise live and Stephen likes those songs to be attacked with aggresion and a degree of abandon so he kind of picked the right band in us! We all got on really well and there was good banter. He’s on the OUS Christmas card list now.

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?
BYRON: If we could ever achieve the intensity of 'Strung Out Deeper Than The Night' by 'Les Rallizes Denudes' I would be a very happy man indeed!
MESSENGER: Well it's not strictly a band, but it’s my answer so like it or lump it. Spiegel Im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt. (Solo for double wah)
DAN: Iron Man. Something by Magazine maybe.
JIM: think it’s best to never cover songs you like, if you like a song there’s a reason you like it and try as you may you’ll never get it better (as the certain something that makes you like the song is usually quite unexplainable). At best you’ll do it verbatim which is a hollow and unrewarding enterprise. Taking a shitty pop song and turning it into something better seems like a much more useful way to expend your energy a la Sonic Youth’s version of Madonna’s ‘Into the Groove’. Having said that we’ve covered a song I like already so it doesn’t mean much!
NICK: Double Dare by Bauhaus. I’m a big fan of those early Cure albums too. Having said that, in truth, we’re not very likely to bother anytime soon. I kind of agree with Jim, unless it’s a song you don’t really care for, you’re unlikely to better it.

Q. Which new bands you recommended?
BYRON: Hey Colossus, Einstellung, Gnod, Flower-Corsano duo.
NICK: Gnod, Gin Panic, The Second Floor, Narrows, Ternary, Anji Cheung, Art of Burning Water.
MESSENGER: 'Cherry but no Cake' have a new Album coming out soon, keep your ears peeled! Also if you like things a bit heavy, a little dash of 'Art of Burning Water' always spices up any occasion.
DAN: I'm afraid, none
JIM: Art of Burning Water, Ivy’s Itch, Silent Front, Conmungos, Ternary, Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom, Gin Panic

Q. What are the plans for the future?
BYRON: Write some more songs and record them, then see if anyone likes them enough to press them to vinyl. After that hopefully we can play some gigs in Europe.
MESSENGER: My plans? Well my plans are being part of a van-guard movement for revolutionary change, (Erich Fromm Action Committee) ending industrial capitalism and wage slavery, much inspired by the brave work you've started over in the Americas. Fuck the oil companies pillaging the all our oil off the Falklands, keep it in the ground! Prison for the criminal Tony Blair! Down with the Imperial ruling class of all our countries, three cheers for the workers of the World!
*** It should be expressed that these views are my wishes alone. One Unique Signal as a band is A political and only about making horrible music. *****
If ‘your’ meant the bands plans, we'd love to play in Brazil!
DAN: Write more!
NICK: We’ve been pretty slack in writing new material and our live shows have probably begun to become a bit boring for regular attendees, so writing is a major priority. We have a good number of ideas at demo stage; it’s just a matter of knuckling down and getting them to take shape. Possibly we’ll put together another mini tour towards the end of the year and look into some mainland Europe dates as well, see how the mood takes us.

Q. Any important news to tell us…
MESSENGER: We want to play in Brazil!
DAN: Gentleman do not exercise!
JIM: We’re writing……….
NICK: Genepool Records still have stock of the Villains to a Man 180grm 12”. Go and pick one up, they’re tasty! http://www.genepoolrecords.com/
*
*
*

Thanks OUS....

http://www.oneuniquesignal.com/
http://www.oneuniquesignal.blogspot.com/

One Unique Signal - Villains to a Man EP

A Northern Soul by Lyca Sleep

Então vai lá, o debut do Exit Calm vazou nos quatros cantos da net e já virou hit absoluto para muita gente tamanha grandiosidade do album, mas por enquanto é melhor aguardar o lançamento oficial datado para maio, entretanto, antes do Exit Calm, Rob Marshall e Scott Pemberton já nos haviam brindado com algo absolutamente brilhante, o Lyca Sleep é nada mais do que o embrião do viria ser o Exit Calm, esta tudo contido aqui, psicodelismo estridente e altamente viajante como nos grandes tempos do Verve quando ainda era The Verve, o elixir toxico pode ser facilmente sentido nas emblematicas Close In e Sold me a Ride, cada uma contida em cada um dos unicos 2 eps lançados lá pelos idos de 2004/2005. Depois da dissolução do Lyca Sleep a história já é conhecida uma parte fundou o grandioso Exit Calm e os demais montaram o Dan Cutts. Ah sim, escute a baladaça Falling on Cedars acompanhado ok.

Lyca Sleep - Ep´s

Oh Manchester so much to answer for with Daniel Land & The Modern Painters - An Interview

É fato consumadissimo que virei fã incondicional do trabalho dos novos mestres do dreampop, Daniel Land & The Modern Painters fazem a trilha sonora para se viajar ao paraiso, por duas vezes já passaram por aqui, primeiramente com os eps e na sequencia com o melhor album de dreampop do ano passado o já classico Lovesongs for The Chemical Generation e agora aproveitando o lançamento do projeto ambient de Daniel Land e mais algumas grandes novidades, gentilmente Daniel me concedeu esta maravilha de entrevista, então sem maiores bla bla blas, Daniel Land & The Modern Painters.

***** Interview with Daniel Land & The Modern Painters *****

Q. When did Daniel Land & The Modern Painters form, tell us about the beginning.
A. The band really began back at the end of 2001 when I met Graeme. I was in Manchester, studying English Literature at Manchester University, and I was just starting to write my own songs. But couldn't find anybody who was into the same music as me. And I eventually found Graeme in a Hard House club on my 21st birthday! It was a totally bizarre situation. Everyone else was on ecstasy, dancing on the bar and on the stairs, and Graeme and I were sat in the corner talking about Radiohead and Spiritualized and how much we wanted to form a band together. It was a good beginning.

We ended up sharing a house together, and it was while we were living there that we met Oisin, who was the third person to join. We did a few things over the years and kept in touch and swapped ideas back and forth and eventually got it all together in 2007, when Andy and Jason came along – just after we’d recorded “Voss”, and just before we started playing live.

Q. What are the band's influences?
A. It's impossible to say really, there are five of us in the band and we all like different stuff. I guess like most musicians, we have pretty large music collections and wide ranges of stuff we're in to. We're not one of those shoegaze bands that only listen to other shoegaze bands or anything like that. In fact, none of us are really massive shoegaze fans, although I love the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive. My other musical loves are things like Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, country music, and The Blue Nile. And Latin American music, strangely enough. I try to shoehorn those obsessions into our music. And of course, everyone in the band does the same thing with their tastes.


Q. Tell us about the recording process for the EPs?
A. We’ve generally recorded the EPs and the album in my house, which has a little makeshift studio. It's basic and we don't have very much expensive equipment, but the advantage we have is Time. We don't have to pay studio costs, so we record when we're feeling inspired, not when the clock is ticking. It's a very pleasant and un-pressured process. The recording room is very sunny and light and it looks out onto a church and graveyard.

Q. For a lot of people the debut Love Songs for Chemical Generation was the best dream pop album from the last year, what's your opinion?
A. That's a lovely thing for us to hear. I can’t speak for the other guys, but it overwhelms me that people think that way. Sometimes what I'm singing about it so bizarre and so private that I think nobody will relate to it. So it's amazing when people say they are moved by it. It makes it all worthwhile.

Q, Tell us about playing live. How did last years gigs go?
A. Our gigs generally go very well. It’s a tough time for touring musicians at the moment; some times lots of people turn up and you play to a full house, other times it's really quiet and you play to hardly any people, and there's no way of telling how it's going to go until the doors open. We generally do pretty well though. Our album launch in Manchester was one of the best. It felt like everyone we'd ever met in Manchester was there.

Q. What do you think about the classic shoegaze era?
A. We like some of it, but not all of it. Personally, I appreciate Slowdive for the sheer quality of Neil Halstead's songwriting. Neil's one of my most treasured and respected artists. I also like My Bloody Valentine although I'm not passionate about them, and bits of Chapterhouse. But in terms of the old scene as a whole, I have mixed feelings about it, really. I wasn't there the first time around, so I don't have any of my youth invested in it. There's no nostalgia there to cast a warm glow over it. I mean, when I started properly listening to older shoegaze music it was 2007 and I was 26 years old, so 1991 was already a long time ago. Looking back now it seems that the whole scene was a bit of a myth - none of the bands really had as much in common with each other as the press liked to make out. You listen to Slowdive and Swervedriver now and they seem miles apart artistically, but at the time the press wrote about them they seemed similar. It's interesting. But I think a lot of modern bands are exploiting those ideas in a better way.

Q. Tell us about bands in the current shoegaze scene.which new bands you recommended?
A. We don't listen to a huge amount of shoegazey stuff to be honest. But the ones we do listen to tends to be those bands that are doing something interesting or unique with shoegaze really, ones that take the shoegaze sound and do something of their own with it. Erm, for me, off the top of my head I can think of Auburn Lull, Mahogany, Elika and so on. Exit Calm as well. And Serena Maneesh; I've just their new album, and I think it's one of the best in the genre.

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?
A. We play quite a lot of cover versions when we do rehearsals, and occasionally slip them into live performances, especially when we get asked to do an acoustic set. Just recently Oisin and I did an acoustic/ambient set in Devon where we did a really nice cover version of the Red House Painters song "Mistress", which I'd like to record one day. We like to take a track that's quite unfashionable and do it in our own style - in the past we've done covers of U2's "Running To Stand Still" and Deacon Blue's "Orphans", and we have some demo recordings of those which we might do something with one day. I like the idea of making a whole covers album of deeply unfashionable music; I think it would be an interesting thing to do.


Q. Tell us about your new ambient project riverrun?
A. The riverrun album is a series of ambient recordings that I have been working for nearly fifteen years. It was a series of little ambient sketches which were just little ideas created as part of the normal process of writing a song - I'd be fiddling about with something on the guitar or with some effects, and I'd go, "Oooh, that sounds nice, I wonder what I can do with that?" And I'd play for a while and realise it didn't fit with the song, but I saved it to my computer as a little piece of music in its own right. Last year, I had the idea of using some of these sketches as film music, and I started experimenting with all of those little sketches, blending them together and laying them on top of each other by changing the speed of things and slowing things down so that all the keys and tones matched. It turned into a kind of patchwork; the whole thing flows together from start to finish and makes a really deep, environmental, ambient mood. And it makes a very nice album, I think; one of our fans wrote to me and said it was a 4am record, which is the perfect compliment, because that's how I always saw it.

(You can hear riverrun at the Myspace page www.myspace.com/riverrun-danielland)

Q. About the news for Engineers, you have just joined the band as a bass player and Ulrich Schnauss has also joined Engineers as a keyboard player, tell us about this new supergroup....
A. Hahaha, supergroup! That’s very kind of you to say that, I’m not sure how accurate it is though!

Well, I’ve known Ulrich for a few years, since 2007 or so. He really helped us at the start of our career, when “Voss” came out, and he was responsible for our connection to Sonic Cathedral. Aside from that though, he’s a really genuine guy, and fun to be around, and we did talk about working on something together in the future, along with Mark Peters from Engineers, who had mixed two tracks of ours with Ulrich for a 7” single on Sonic Cathedral records.

The original Engineers line-up folded last autumn, and early this year Mark approached me to ask if I could join and play bass for a while; Ulrich was already playing keyboards in the live band of Engineers anyway, so it seemed a nice way of doing what we’d planned to do anyway, which was work together.

It’s really lovely to be involved. Aside from it being a lot of fun, it’s also quite useful for myself and The Modern Painters in terms of industry connections and things like that. Engineers have been signed for a long time, so they know lots of people. That’s not the only motivation for getting involved, of course, but it’s a bonus. Easy for me; all I have to do is play bass. It’s nice to not be the frontman.

Q. What are the plans for the future? New album...?
A. We’ve just been starting to think about the second Daniel Land & The Modern Painters record, actually. I think is going to be a really interesting, rewarding record to make. We all loved the last Radiohead album, which has been a pretty constant obsession, and I was listening to that and talking with our bass player Andrew about ways in which we might bring to the fore the unique elements we have as a band - how we can emphasise the things we do that others don't and maybe strike out a bit more on our own path for the second album.

Personally, I’ve been thinking a lot about lyrics recently. I’m keen on bringing the lyrics right up front on the next record, and I really want to use the lyrics to communicate rather than just hiding them and singing about obscure things. I'm going to be thirty this year, and most of the songs on the last record were written during a long relationship that ended last year. I've really been doing a lot of work on myself since then, my values and priorities have changed a lot, and I've got all these exciting new things to write about.

In fact, I've written most of the lyrics for the new album already; they're finished. Which is something I've never done before - the lyrics were always done at the end, and were sometimes a bit rushed. So this is a whole new way of working for me, and is very exciting. I can’t wait to hear what we all come up with for this record.
*
*
*

Thanks Daniel!!!

http://www.myspace.com/danielland

riverrun - Pentimento

Lo-Fi Forever by Coloração Desbotada

Legal, legal, legal, primeiro registro é sempre um marco, e assim nasce mais heróis do submundo dos bons sons brazucas, a Pug Records idealizada pelos camaradas Eduardo e André, leia-se também, Last Splash, jogam lo-fi sujo, barulhento e fenomenal, em formato cassete, pois é cassete porra, lembram dos cassetes???Não, a então você não sabe o quanto era bacana gravar tuas fitinhas cassetes e sair com os velhos walkmans pela rua, tive varios, inclusive meu primeiro contato com J&MC veio atraves da minha velha, suja e inutilizada cassete do Psychocandy, então, o nascimento da Pug vem com Coloração Desbotada, leia-se Lê Almeida, o homem banda,...bom deixa o release falar por si só:

"Eu eu mesmo e os vários beijos cafeinados une camadas de distorção e ruído a melodias pop. Não se trata, porém, de mais uma banda etérea emulando o My Bloody Valentine. Apesar dos ecos shoegaze, a Coloração Desbotada está mais ligada a guitar bands como Pixies, Built to Spill, Gumball e Eric’s Trip, bem como ao Guided by Voices — evidente nas canções curtas e na produção lo-fi. Não à toa, Lê Almeida, o homem por trás do grupo carioca, é o organizador do tributo brasileiro à obra de Robert Pollard (…)Beijos Cafeinados foi inteiramente gravado com apenas um microfone de computador. É o marco zero da Transfusão Noise Records, selo comandado por Lê. A tiragem original em CD-R, de 2005, fez a cabeça de muitos fãs dos anos 90 na Baixada Fluminense, alguns dos quais acabaram montando bandas que viriam a integrar o cast da Transfusão (...)Este EP também marca o início da Pug Records — selo que nós, do Last Splash, estamos começando. Em comemoração aos 5 anos do disco, a Pug está lançando uma edição em cassete, acrescida de várias faixas inéditas. Parte desses bônus também está disponível nesta versão digital, lançada simultaneamente por blogs de download amigos."

Precisa dizer mais alguma coisa, ou tá bom assim??!?

Coloração Desbotada - Beijos Cafeinados EP

Totally Wired with Snapper

Em conversa recente com um brother sobre bandas que fizeram historia de sucumbiram e se eternizaram no submundo dos bons sons, ou ainda que criaram-se cultos silenciosos ao redor delas proprias nos quatro cantos do mundo, dentre tantos nomes, chegamos a conclusão que a cena neo zelandesa foi hiper mega subestimada, vide bandaças do nivel de Chills, Clean, Jean Paul Sartre Experience, Verlaines, Bats, e logicamente a gravadora Flying Nun, responsavel pelos albuns de toda essa galera, mas dai me veio a cabeça uma que ficou submersa mesmo, e que para mim lançou uma obra prima absolutamente inspirada chamada Snapper e a obra em questão denominava-se Shotgun Blossom, liberada pelo loucaço Peter Gutteridge que já havia sido membro tanto do Chills como do Clean, só que diferentemente da proposta das bandas inicias o Snapper era um cataclisma de art noise pegando Velvet Underground, Suicide, Kraut e o avant guarde de bandas como Sonic Youth e Band of Susans acrescentando aquele famoso orgão com moogs caracteristicamente difundido pelos albuns do Stereolab, tanto que é fato que algumas partes deste Shotgun Blossom anteciparam a sonoridade do Stereolab, pegue Eyes That Shine e principalmente What are you Thinking e diga se não é a mais pura verdade....um album que inicia na escuridão com canções centradissimas em repetições e pos punk com uma modernidade que choca, principalmente se levarmos em consideração que o album é datado de 1990, Pop you Top, Can e Telepod Fly dão a sensação exata do caos. A outra extremidade da sonoridade desde magistral album pega o lado mais pure dream pop com Dead Pictures, Snapper and the Ocean, exemplos clarissimos da genialidade de Peter Gutteridge, mais ainda tem Emmanuelle, I Don´t Know, Hot Sun, Dry Spot....meu deus...como pude ficar tanto tempo sem ouvir essa maravilha da musica moderna. Tipo, se você não conhece, e gosta de pos punk, noise, guitarras, efeitos, orgãos, kraut, nonsense ou simplesmente musica de verdade, bom caia de cabeça.

Snapper - Shotgun Blossom

Forgotten Shoegazers Part II, Spirea X

Como uma banda com um single que poderia estar lado a lado com Pearl ou Mesmerize do Chapterhouse tamanho o apelo pop, aquele baggy shoegazer, psicodelismo dançante, apelo 60´s, inspirada na historia de Brian Jones, esta é a mais perfeita descrição para Chlorine Dream, uma daquelas canções que de tão relusentes e perfeitas chega a doer até, dai como pode não ter feito o "sucesso" que merecia?A musica é assim cruel e não ha como negar algumas injustiças, mas é fato que o Spirea X tinha tudo, mas tudo para ser tão cult quanto os demais, mas a historia assim não o quis, mas outros fatos qualificavam o Spirea X para a adoração, primeiro sua formação capitaneada por Jim Beattie parceiro de Bob Gillespie nos longinquos tempos do Primal Scream quando a banda fazia hinos como Crystal Crescent, Ivy, Ivy, Ivy, enfim, alias o nome Spirea X é uma musica do Primal Scream, outro ponto é terem lançado um album, alias o unico pela maravilhosa 4AD, então porque eles não conseguiram?

Talvez por serem mais alegres, mais 60´s talvez, nunca saberemos, mas o debut deles Fireblade Skies é um belissimo, mas belissimo album perdido entre tantos dos já distantes 90´s, e vale não somente por conter a preciosa Chlorine Dream, outros pontos altos destacam-se nesse caldeirão neo psicodelico, Spirea Rising, Confusion in My Soul e a dulcissima Speed Reaction são claros exemplos do poder sonoro do Spirea X.

Em tempo, a propria história da musica se redimiu com Jim Beattie e sua namorada Judith Boyle, visto que com o fim do Spirea em meados de 1992, não demorou muito e em 1994 eles ressurgiram com o cultuadissimo Adventures in Stereo, mas o frescor de Chlorine Dream e do Spirea X ficarão imortalizados nos porões dos bons sons e claro aqui no TBTCI.

Spirea X - Fireblade Skies

Forgotten Shoegazers Part I, Moonshake

O primeiro ep do Moonshake lançado nos tempos aureos da Scene sucumbiu ao tempo e permaneceu intacto, puro, e completamente soberbo. Lançado em 1991 pela Creation, o disquinho contém 4 tesouros completamente encharcados de loops, nuances de kraut rock, feedbacks, reverberações e vocalização mais do que perfeito, inicialmente composto por David Callahan que já havia marcado seu nome na historia da indiepop music com o fabuloso Wolfhounds lá na famigerada Class of 86, somado as vocais angelicias de Margaret Fiedler faziam ambos a base criativa do Moonshake.

O tal Epzinho começa com Gravity ao melhor estilo Loveless, alias talvez esse ep seja o que mais chegou perto da grandiosidade eloquente do Loveless, os loops, as sobreposições de inumeras guitarras, os samplers dão traços de essencial a musica, a sequencia com Coward, minha predileta, segue o mesmo raciocinio se Gravity é mais Kevins Shields, Coward é mais Bilinda, insinuantemente sensual Margaret branda "there´s a coward in my house", Coming dá sinais do que a banda viria a tornar-se logo apos a saida da Creation, beats, experimentalismos ciclicos, guitarras repetitivas, ainda com nuances shoegazers, mas já pendendo para lados mais pos punks no estilo PIL, Pop Group, etc, vale cada segundo, fechando o delirante ep, Hanging vem com ares de 4AD e a conexão com os Pale Saints é sentida facilmente.

Rapidamente, este foi o unico lançamento pela Creation, logo apos Callahan e sua trupe mudaram para a Too Pure e fizeram historia em albuns eloquentemente experimentais e com delirantes experimentalismos, confira Eva Luna que é altamente recomendavel.

Moonshake - First EP