change of plan...

so turns out there won't be a radio show tomorrow after all - bummer. subcity is moving location to make way for renovations to its existing building you see, and this is gonna take a tad longer than expected. so i guess i'll just have to save the bowlie-fest breakdown till next week then, won't i?

if the news saddens you ever so, have a listen to an old show - there must be one or two you aint heard before....

x

reviews: fursaxa, solex, to rococo rot

Fursaxa - Mycorrhiza Realm (****)
Let me save you a trip to Wikipedia: a mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant, which would locate a mycorrhizae realm beneath the topsoil, deep in the earth. Fursaxa (a.k.a. experimental songwriter Tara Burke) fills this domain with uncanny sounds: opener Lunaria Exits the Blue Lodge is an atmospheric awakening that evokes the breaking of dawn; Ode To Galliard’s sinister cello lurks beneath wails and moans thick with mystery; while Well of Tuhala’s wispy spell should soundtrack graveyard sleepwalks. Whether you’ll find this esoteric hokum or enchanting genius can be gauged by your reaction to the penultimate Charlote. A funereal dirge leavened by Mary Lattimore’s harp, its accessible beauty is shaken by its sudden collapse six minutes in. As the bottom drops away you’re either dazzled by its daring or frustrated by its abstruseness; if the former, dig this out.

Out Now


Solex Vs. Cristina Marinez + Jon Spencer - Amsterdam Showdown, King Street Throwdown (***)
Before we assess the music, let's unpick the personnel. Elisabeth Esselink (aka Dutch songwriter Solex), meet husband and wife duo Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez, frontman of Blues Explosion and both constituent members of Boss Hog.

If the ‘Vs.’ between their billing connotes a battle over artistic direction, Solex won - this is decidedly her creation, with little of the raw punk-blues of Spencer and Martinez’ other bands discernable in the mix. Though, with the record appropriating a diverse range of influences (it’s unsurprising that Esselink runs a record shop when she isn’t composing kitsch collages), raw punk-blues is one of the few genres this doesn't touch.

Its retro-futuristic aesthetic resembles Cornelius remixing The B-52s: horn stabs, hip hop beats, lounge-core chill-out and more crop up, and while the result is admirably miscellaneous (Damon Albarn in his Gorillaz-guise would no doubt approve), it frequently gets stuck in a rut (sorry, ‘groove’). A mixed bag, with mixed results.

Out Now


To Rococo Rot - Speculation (***)
For their eighth album, To Rococo Rot maintain their established aesthetic - impersonal atmosphere, sparingly stocked with isolating electronics and organic krautrock grooves. Their music does very little, but it does it well. Seele is an early treat, its processed piano striking and shattering glitchy electronica and intricate drums, but it’s relatively conventional by the Berlin trio’s standards. Things don’t get weird till No Way To Prepare’s tuneless squall, but that’s only a thirty-second bridge linking the sparse pulse of Forwardness to Working Against Time’s minimal synth-squiggles. The closing Fridays is a more interesting departure from the template; washes of electronic noise are lightly infiltrated by organ courtesy of Faust’s Jochen Irmler, the amorphous result shifting throughout its ten and a half minute sprawl. But dissecting Speculation and analysing its tracks individually is to drain it - as a complete work this is an excellent addition to a moody discography.

Out Now

write down a list of things you want to do

so belle and sebastian are curating an all tomorrow's parties in december. hooray! to celebrate this bit of nice news, i'll spend some of this week's radio show spinning bands that played the first bowlie weekender a decade ago, as a taster for some of the acts mr murdoch and friends might pick this time round. capiche? think sleater kinney, flaming lips and cornelius...

thursday, noon till 1pm, subcity.org

reviews: two door cinema club, sambassadeur, alphabeat

here's another trio of album reviews from theskinny.co.uk:

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History (***)
Initially resembling an emo-Foals, Two Door Cinema Club discover unexpected range across their full length debut. Pierce the production sheen and there’s much to admire; they echo the Rapture’s dancefloor-filling one moment (on This is the Life amongst others) and chirrup like Passion Pit on holiday the next (Something Good Can Work’s careful negotiation of the irritating/catchy high-wire). But it’s not all rosy: I Can Talk suggests the junk-heaped likes of The Bravery or Boy Kill Boy are a more consistent comparison - empty calories for the ears that whiz past unnoticed. That they were long-listed for the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll comes as no surprise; like so many acts feted in Januarys gone by, the excitement their best songs generate dissipates too quickly for them to firmly find their feet. But sift out the filler and seeds of longevity remain, not least in You’re Not Stubborn’s up-beat finale.

Out Now

Sambassadeur - European (****)
For all its sweeping strings and pop nous, Sambassadeur’s third album is an understated affair that initial listens might write off as underwhelming. At only nine tracks there’s little room for filler, yet the slight instrumental A Remote View is decidedly far from the peaks the Gothenburg quartet have it in them to scale. But the Cocteau Twins-like shiver of I Can Try, the sweet simplicity of High and Low, and the symphonic swell of Sandy Dunes will lure you back until, with startling clarity, the pieces fall into place. European only sounds like a compromise because it scribbles its delicately uplifting melodies on an immense Swede-pop canvas others have filled more vividly, but its subtlety gifts it a different kind of populist appeal. The world doesn’t want for happy-go-lucky indie-pop from Scandinavia, but there’s more to Sambassadeur than the odd Abba-echo or Spector tom-drum reverberation: they have heart.

Out Now

Alphabeat - The Beat Is... (*)
Co-opting the sounds of yesteryear is hardly uncommon in pop, but it works better if the chosen template is, say, eighties electro, rather than the shitty fourth side of a Now That’s What I Call 1994 singles compilation. As Alphabeat resurrect Haddaway-style vocals, Ibeefa-house electric piano and backing tracks that practically warrant a ‘ft. Snap!’ suffix, it’s difficult to tell who’s having less fun – band or listener. Once in a while a slither of personality wrestles free from the Ace of Base production and smothering autotune, but that only makes the awfulness of their sophomore effort all the more lamentable – they’ve gone from refreshingly fun and up-beat to tacky euro-cheese, and in the process tainted in the memory the enjoyment that came before. As you rush to remove The Beat Is... from your speakers, try not to smudge the chalk outline of Alphabeat’s credibility.

Out Now


(note: i don't usually repost negative reviews - while i review whatever get sent my way by the skinny, i don't feel the need to harp on about the crap stuff here as well. when it comes to the bottle rocket blog, i'd much rather keep things positive. but alphabeat's latest album is so massively awful i felt compelled to state my position one more time: it's shit. don't listen to it.)

bring me sunshine, bring me

a poster:

it's like so bitchin

and it goes like this:

- the ramones - pet cemetery
- lcd soundsystem - time to get away
- frank zappa - valley girl
- broken bells - the ghost inside
- the triffids - wide open road
- joanna newsom - good intentions paving co.
- the pipettes - our love was saved by spacemen
- the tallest man on earth - burden of tomorrow
- benni hemm hemm - blood of my blood
- wild beasts - we still got the taste dancing on our tongues
- british sea power - apologies to insect life
- jeffrey lewis - back when i was four
- arctic monkeys - my propeller
- wooden box with a fistful of fivers - besides the point

listen again here

back when i was four and i knew the name of every dinosaur

the recipe for tomorrow's bottle rocket radio show is oh-so-simple. just mix together some reminiscences bout last saturday's club night, some gig news and music, and a wee look at the early lineups of two more upcoming fests: hinterland and stag and dagger. blend, adding crap chatter copiously at regular intervals.

serve at subcity.org, noon till one.

x

thee silver mt zion memorial orchestra @ glasgow school of art

With left hand flowing over fretboard while the right rattles his acoustic's wooden body and glances over strings, RM Hubbert is one hell of a guitarist. On record, that’s all he is - solo instrumentals only vary so much – but the aura of 'liveness' makes things feel less repetitive. Hubbert’s affability is too low-key to command the room – chatter relegates sections of his performance to background music – but it’s an enjoyable scene-setter nonetheless.

While it's cliché to parrot the indie-poser mantra (“thou must favour the early stuff“), Thee Silver Mt Zion’s changing sound seems to prompt such declarations with every release – if not necessarily towards their finding-their-feet salad days, then for the skewed orchestrations of their Rusted Satellites/Horses in the Sky period. The opening I Built Myself A Metal Bird – from this year’s Kollaps Tradixionales – suggests the contrast isn’t in quality (its ferocious rock squall is invigorating), but in uniqueness as they ebb closer towards a more well-worn post-rock template. The older God Bless Our Dead Marines proves the highlight, the restraint of its gently crumpled canon climax more stirring than blustery crescendos. Efrim Menuck’s troupe is still fantastic, just no longer in a league so far removed from its peers.

march playlist

here's the playlist from saturday night!

1. elliot smith - bled white
2. ponytail - celebrate the body electric (it came from an angel)
3. club 8 - western hospitality
4. yo la tengo - upside down
5. ballboy - avant garde music
6. delgados - hate is all you need
7. patti smith - gloria
8. sparks - don't leave me alone with her
9. shout out louds - normandie
10. the pass - crosswalk stereo
11. broken bells - the ghost inside
12. why? - sand dollars
13. jonathan fireeater - give me daughters
14. frank zappa - valley girl
15. at the drive in - one armed scissor
16. liars - plaster casts of everything
17. prince - kiss
18. beck - sexxlaws
19. still flyin' - the hot chord is stuck
20. les savy fav - what would wolves do?
21. interpol - slow hands
22. surfer blood - swim
23. pavement - date with ikea
24. franz ferdinand - darts of pleasure
25. rose elinor dougall - fallen over
26. sandie shaw - there's always something there to remind me
27. the raveonettes - that great love sound
28. the concretes - chosen one
29. the smiths - girl afraid
30. of montreal - first time high
31. jesus and mary chain - head on
32. the go-betweens - that way
33. jimmy cliff - you can get it if you really want
34. wilco - monday
35. the hold steady - constructive summer
36. mint royale and lauren laverne - don't falter
37. cyndi lauper - money changes everything
38. bruce springsteen - hungry heart
39. lcd soundsystem - time to get away
40. beastie boys - no sleep till brooklyn
41. beyonce - single ladies
42. fleetwood mac - everywhere
43. belle and sebastian - sukie in the graveyard
44. haircut 100 - fantastic day
45. patrick wolf - accident and emergency
46. shakira - she-wolf
47. liz brady - partie de dames
48. big country - in a big country
49. idlewild - actually it's darkness
50. abba - sos
51. kirsty maccoll - new england
52. new order - true faith
53. the ramones - pet cemetery
54. talking heads - and she was
55. the white stripes - fell in love with a girl
56. andrew wk - party till you puke
57. pixies - here comes your man
58. blondie - denis
59. the futureheads - hounds of love
60. the isley brothers - twist and shout
61. the rhythm wreckers - blue yodel no. 2

x

autechre @ sub club, 16th march

Sean Booth and Rob Brown aren’t ones to bask in limelight. As they are frequently wont to do, tonight they perform in darkness, turning the Sub Club into a serrated cocoon; a jagged womb that shudders and trembles with bass and beats. They’re the anti-Daft Punk, Autechre’s light-show the sole low glow of LED ‘on’ switches. Deprived of visual stimulus and intoxicated by the jarring, erratic rhythms, patrons try to find a bodily equivalent and settle on a mix of mismatched convulsions (predominantly from those with a ‘lost in the moment’ glaze to the eyes) and thoughtful head-nodding (from those more into the ‘I’ than the ‘D’ of IDM). Autechre satisfy cerebrally and viscerally, the mind sated by the intricate motifs and the body by the pounding palpitations. Their intense set is an exhausting eye-opener, even if your widened peepers see nowt but the sweat on the dancer beside you.

rock and roll is here to stay

last week bottle rocket radio was saddened by the death of mark linkous. this week, the death of alex chilton brought a maudlin air, but the loss wasn't dwelt upon for too long. i had other fish to fry in the show, namely looooads of music from artists playing in glasgow and edinburgh in the next few days and a bunch of stuff to preview this weekend's dancing party at nice n sleazys!

the show went a little something like this:

- big star - thirteen
- josiah wolf - the new car
- why? - sandollars
- withered hand - takeaway food
- babybird - tv
- thee silver mt zion memorial orchestra - hang on to each other
- burnt island - music and maths
- emma pollock - hug the harbour
- the hidden cameras - ban marriage
- tindersticks - the flicker of a little girl
- the temptations - get ready
- patti smith - space monkey
- talking heads - and she was
- liars - plaster casts of everything
- mint royale and lauren laverne - don't falter

listen to it here.

you got the march skinny yet? GLAD TO HEAR IT

here's what it looks like:


and here's a list of what i wrote what's in it:

- review of talk to me DVD (biopic of dj petey greene starring don cheadle)
- review of 1234 (that british indie-pop film i've been banging on about...)
- review of polar bear's 'peepers'
- review of trips and falls's 'he was such a quiet boy'
- review of to rococo rot's 'speculation'
- review of rm hubbert's 'first and last'
- review of baby dee's 'book of songs'
- review of chris bradley's 'at the outpost'
- review of emma pollock's 'the law of large numbers'
- review of fursaxa's 'mycorrhizae realm'
- review spoon's king tuts show on valentine's day


I AM SO OPINIONATED