John Grant is playing not once, but twice in Leeds this Saturday. In the afternoon he is doing an instore at Jumbo Records, and then he’ll be at Leeds Met in the evening. If you are in reach of Leeds you really should think about going to one, if not both.
And here’s a Letherette a tune from the self-titled album that I played in my show last night:
If you listen back to the whole show, you will hear these tunes: Continue reading
Howdy folks,
Hope you’re in fine fettle. Loads of great songs on the show, including several ear worms, plus session tracks, oldies and newbies.
Voila le menu for Wednesday 20th July:
St Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Washed Out – Eyes To Be Closed
Zola Jesus – Vessel
Stave Mason & Dennis Bovell – Lost & Dub
Printed Circuit – Brick It
Grace Jones – Williams’ Blood (Aeroplane mix)
Fool’s Gold – Ha Dvash (BCB session track)
Darren Hayman – Drive Too Fast (BCB session track)
Eurythmics – Love Is A Stranger
James Blake – Limit To Your Love
Other Lives – Tamer Animals
Tricky (Fi Fi Rong mix) -Â Time To Dance
See you same time next week (Wed night at 9pm) on 106.6fm in Bradford and www.bcbradio.co.uk.
If you like the list but missed the show then you can also listen again via www.bcbradio.co.uk
Lx
Sunday night saw the family outfit Kitty, Daisy and Lewis take to the stage at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds in support of their long awaited new album – Smoking In Heaven. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis sprang to fame a few years back with their endlessly danceable rockabilly album that sounded like it should have been recorded decades ago, and not by a trio of youngsters from London-town, and with the backing of Rob da Bank’s Sunday Best label, won over the hearts of every retro-loving music fan in the land. The retro-image doesn’t stop at slicked back hair and a love of banjos however – the band release all their music on a variety of vinyl formats, and their new album is available in an old-style 78rpm 10†vinyl in a 1950’s hard-backed record album; it’s the sort of dedication that makes me think none of them own iPods and must make all their calls on Bakelite phones. They were supported by guitar and double bass duo Spirit of John who came straight from the dampness of Rough Beats Festival to play an entertaining set of folk-rockabilly before the siblings took to the stage accompanied by their dad on guitar and mum on double bass.
The problem I have with seeing bands who are touring with a new album is that I always end up mildly disappointed – I basically wish to hear the last album and inevitably haven’t listened enough to the new record to fully appreciate the set. I haven’t heard an awful lot of Smoking in Heaven, but KDL managed to balance the new and old songs enough to keep me happy. Guest musician Tan-Tan of the Skalites joined the trio on stage to show a diversity of the band that was refreshing to see – just when you think that all this band are capable of is quaint rockabilly, they whip out a splash of dancehall/ska that keeps you dancing. The highlight for me was new single ‘Messin with my Life’, which is unashamingly a summer pop song; yeh it’s obvious, but Kitty, Daisy and Lewis do it so well that I don’t mind at all.
New single – Messin with My Life, released 27th June
Well hello there…
How have you been? Hope all’s good…and you’ve either managed to wean yourself off the quality streets (or you’ve eaten all the good ones).
Onto musical matters….I’ve put together a grand selection for the show. Here’s what’s making me a happy bunny:
Chromeo – Hot mess (duck sauce remix)
Smoke Fairies – Strange moon rising (playing at the Brudenell Social at the end of Jan)
Pete and the Pirates – Winter 1
Ellen and the Escapades – Preying on your mind (join their mailing list and download a free acoustic version of Without You)
John Grant – Where dreams go to do
MIA – Internet connection (Huoratron rum aix remix)
Starling – Be Someone (lovely, from Bradford…myspace.com/starlingsings)
The Walkmen – Juveniles
Hercules & Love Affair – Fax yourself, ‘sunshine’ (one of my christmas pressies)
Esben & the Witch – Warpath (in Shef on 7 Feb)
Wilful Missing – Ghosts (Loose Ends EP out now, playing York on 5 Feb)
Arcade Fire – We used to wait
Darren Hayman (sung by Elizabeth Morris) – I know I fucked up (he’s doing a song a day to keep the winter misery away…look him up on soundcloud and you can download a track for free). Woo!
Every week there’s nothing I love more (well almost!) than discovering new songs and recording sessions. This is especially true when it comes to local talent – strictly of the musical variety. Thanks for sending in tunes and gigs dates – keep em coming. You’re lovely. You can either email: laura.rawlings@bcbradio.co.uk or post: Laura Rawlings, The BCB Sessions, 11 Rawson Road, Bradford BD1 3SH.
If I think it’ll tickle our collective fancy, I’ll get it on the show and you’ll join The BCB Sessions’ “Hall of Fame†alongside Blue Roses, Freyed Knot, The Luminaries, Lone Wolf, The Duke & the King, King Creosote….and hundreds more.
I’ll be back next week with Scars on 45…they’ve got new material so we’ll be playing it – Wednesday night at 9pm. If you want a sneak preview of their sound, www.scarson45.com
Lx
I was 15 when I attended my first festival – U2 at Milton Keynes Bowl, with support from The Ramones, REM, Spear of Destiny and Billy Bragg (who performed at pretty much every festival in the mid to late 1980s). Bono was less pompous then, I was in love with Larry Mullen Jnr, and I’d never seen 50,000 people in one space before – it was quite a big deal for little teenage me. I also got hideously sun-burned and learned my first festival lesson – sun-block.
I haven’t been to that many festivals since, as I decided I actually don’t enjoy them that much. I’ll get excited by a line-up, pay a huge sum of money for maybe three or four bands, then feel disappointed because I can’t see a thing, the sound quality is rubbish, and there are too many drunk people invading my personal space. I’ve often come away from a festival saying “(insert band) were great, but I’d love to see them properly…â€
Then I had my first All Tomorrow’s Parties experience. No tents. No portaloos. No sun-block. Amazing bands, decent stages and sound quality – a festival that gives you a proper, intimate gig experience for each band you choose to see. And do you know what else I like? Seats. Standing around all day takes it’s toll, and I am officially middle aged, you know.
IÂ was only at @cnstlltns from 6pm last night but this is what I made of it
Monday 15th November 10:10
I think #Liars did a new song at @cnstlltns. It was ace
Sunday 14th November, 18:53
Until @localnatives said so at @cnstlltns I didn’t know Warning Sign was a Talking Heads cover. Their harmonies are spot on live.
Sunday 14th November, 19:02
The percussive multitasking of @localnatives was as impressive as their harmonies at @cnstlltns
Sunday 14th November, 19:29
A lesson from @cnstlltns : try to stage dive while @lessavyfav are playing & u might end up getting… A foot massage
Sunday 14th November, 20:55
Sorry @loscampesinos but I couldn’t drag myself away from @lessavyfav at @cnstlltns but delighted u were allowed overtime so I cd see u too!
Sunday 14th November, 21:17
Les Savy Fav, photographed by Hannah Cordingley
What I saw of @FourTet & @bssmusic (Broken Social Scene) tonight at @cnstlltns left me wanting more. Wish I cd have seen full set by both
Sunday 14th November, 22:42
I missed @sleighbells at @cnstlltns to catch train. Jen Fox of @bcbradio saw them & says: “they were good…prefer the heavier shouty stuff”
Sunday 14th November, 23:27
The above are all Tweets from @djalbertfreeman
My messages are like buses…you wait ages and then loads come at once. But the joy when you get one is oh so good!
Great news, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to see The Duke & the King and Wilful Missing! They’re playing tomorrow night (Thursday 28th) at the Wardrobe in Leeds (right next to the bus station). It’ll be fantastic! I saw them play at the Hi Fi – it was packed and brilliant. So if you want to go for free (courtesy of the Hee Haw Sessions & BCB radio) then tune in tonight to Eclectic Mainline from 8pm. The winner will be announced before 10pm on The BCB Sessions. That’s 106.6fm if you’re in Bradford or www.bcbradio.co.uk to listen online.
Lx
I hadn’t realised how popular Crystal Castles have become. Â I haven’t got their second album and have missed what I can only assume has been a huge furore surrounding them since the release of their debut in 2009. Â Last night’s gig at Leeds Met was a sell out, and the kids were loving it. Â [I can now legitimately refer to such gig-goers as kids as I believe I am now scientifically old enough to have fathered a child the same age as at least half of last night’s audience. Â This fact is reassuring rather than alarming, as it evidences my belief that I’m still ‘cool’ (although use of that 20th century word may betray me) and have not yet succumbed to the type of ‘safe’ dad music someone of my age might start realising is going to see my happily to my retirement.]
HEALTH, Leeds Met, 23rd October 2010
This tour isn’t the first time Crystal Castles and HEALTH have been mentioned by me in the same breath, as I have played previous musical collaborations by them in my show.  I had thus far failed to see HEALTH and having heard they were marvellous live, I was not disappointed.  They were quite brilliant and I was left wondering whether Crystal Castles may have made an error by being supported by a band so good.  The charismatic bass player was centre stage, being as he was  the most visually entertaining member of the band.  I was actually surprised by how organic their line-up was.  There was a fair amount of synthetic effects, but largely their sound was comprised of guitars, bass, drums, more drums, and vocals.  Their whole set was an onslaught of confident, articulate, tightly knitted noise, and the highlights were Die Slow and USA Boys.
The between-band downtime, prolonged due to the malfunction of either an XLR or a DI box on stage, wasn’t the usual painful wait, for me at least. Â The soundman had a penchant for Elliott Smith, so I got to hear all of Elliott Smith and half of Either Or during the wait.
Crystal Castles, Leeds Met, 23rd October 2010
My paternal concerns about whether Crystal Castles may find themselves upstaged by HEALTH proved unnecessary. Â They started with (I assume) a couple of tunes from Crystal Castles (II) and the youth were going crazy, lapping it up. Â The sound was quite immense – deep, full-on electronics, piercing vocals and live drums. Â Couple their aural onslaught with the visual element of the live experience, and it was a performance I really could not find fault with. Â The heavy use of backlit strobes, against an otherwise mostly dark stage, with Alice Glass’s onstage athleticism, and they are quite a proposition. Â Quite a brilliant night.
External references:
Crystal Castles – crystalcastles.com
HEALTH – www.healthnoise.com
NIck Pickles music photographer – www.music-photographer.co.uk
Finally, the review is complete. And so to bed…
That wind has got up again. Â In fact, there would appear to be a tornado whipping up around my tent. Â I’m going to take off like Dorothy in the wizard of Oz. Â I wonder if I will land on a witch. Â It really is causing a racket and there’s no way that I’ll be able to get back off to sleep now with that tent flapping about. Â Oh, it’s raining now. Â Goodness, it really is raining rather hard. Â Perhaps the rhythm of the rain will lull me back to sleep…
That's a map of Mordor isn't it.
No, that didn’t work. Â And anyway I need a wee. Â The weather has been very kind to us these last few days, but I suspect that I may finally have to bite the bullet and don the wellies today. Â I struggle into these and hope against hope that on this occasion I won’t be wearing them for long enough for them to stink like they did when I wore them at Glastonbury last year. Â On that occasion the smell was an odd mix of styles – imagine if you would that someone decided to make a speciality cheese out of cow poo. Â It would smell exactly the same as that.
Speaking of cleanliness, I notice on the way to the urine trough that the queue for the showers is not very long.  I know – showers at festival.  We get all the home comforts in the Guest Area you know.  Sadly, there’s all of four showers serving around 400 people, so thus far I’ve not bothered because I didn’t want to miss the entire festival whilst standing in a line to have a wash.  Hmmm, that line hasn’t moved at all.  What to do? I decide to give it a whirl and see how far the queue moves in ten minutes or so.  After the ten minutes have elapsed I’m no nearer the shower, but I’m too stubborn to give up now I’ve started. Continue reading
The aural equivalent to being spat on, support act The Hunter Gracchus subject a bemused audience to 15 minutes of improvised white noise. This consists of electric guitar and violin feedback, a dying saxophone and the old cliché, a wailing woman; if you’re planning on butchering your family with a pick axe and want some appropriate music to do it to, this band is for you.
