Sunday 29 December 2013

2013 Summarized and 2014 Predicted


Once a year, usually as the month of December fades out into the dawn of a new era, I get visited by three ghosts. The Ghosts of Music Past, Present and Future come to visit as the midnight bells chime twelve..... Ok, I'll stop now as I'm sure there might be copyright laws involved at some point.
However it is that time of year when every music publication, blog, podcast etc review the best events of 2013. I have decided to tackle mine with also making predictions of what will occur in the future*, so here goes;

Best Album Releases


The Next Day - David Bowie

Past:  The King of Pop and personification of rock 'n' roll had been in self-exile since his 2004 'Reality' tour. After leading everyone into thinking that the era of Bowie had been and gone, he carried out the most simplest of publicity stunts which just consisted of popping down the road for a pint of milk. The media were whipped up into a frenzy but even they couldn't predict the sudden, surprise release of 'Where Are We Now?' on the Thin White Duke's 66th Birthday, 8th January, with the announcement of a new album. The Next Day reached Number 1, Bowie's first since his 1993 album 'Black Tie, White Noise'.  

Present:  Bowie and Visconti are still holding all Bowie fans in a state of limbo by releasing contradicting statements over the possibility of live performances. 

Future: Different versions of 'The Next Day' will be released over the next five years with the promises of unheard tracks and remixes of original versions. Despite the controversy over the title track, The Pope will release a statement saying that he is a fan. 




Rewind The Film - Manic Street Preachers


Past: After waving farewell to the Welsh musicians at the O2 arena in 2011 as they announced they were embarking on a UK hiatus, I immediately began suffering Manic withdrawal symptoms (see what I did there?).  Remedy and much excitement came in May of this year however as James Dean Bradfield  announced to NME that recording was in progress of two new albums, with one being almost purely acoustic. Rewind The Film was nostalgia in its purest form for everyone involved as the Manics explored the ideologies that had moulded them as a band.

Present: Nicky Wire is carefully selecting his wardrobe for the tour of the second album. Milkman outfit or leopard print skirt, or both?

Future:  30 Year War will be used as the official song for Margaret Thatcher's memorial service in 2014 due to an embarrassing mix up on behalf of the Tory Party.


 

 New- Paul McCartney 

Past: It seems that 2013 should go down as the official year for musical nostalgia as Paul McCartney released his sixteenth studio album to express his memories of the days before The Beatles as well as more recent events in his life. Selecting producers such as Mark Ronson, McCartney went against the grain of what was to be generally expected of him by making a fun-loving pop album. 

Present: 'New' reached number 3 in the UK album charts and I wouldn't be surprised if DJs everywhere are selecting tracks from the album to put on their New Year's Eve Party song list. 

Future: Paul McCartney will go down in history as the most successful Post-Beatles Beatle.




Best Live Performances



 Roger Waters - The Wall 

After sharing air with the legendary Roger Waters and seeing performed live one of the most famous albums in British history, I predict that I will still be wearing the Tee Shirt when I'm old and frail. On a more serious note, the concert has also inspired me to get more involved in politics and hopefully one day I will get a chance to teach impoverished children in third world countries so that they can have a fighting chance in this world. 



Beady Eye -BE 

'You're not a mod,  you're just a c**t in a Parka coat' I thought to myself as Liam Gallagher swaggered onto stage at Kingston's New Slang. Kudos to New Slang for getting a Gallagher brother up onto their stage but the night for me just contained pure comedic value. You can imagine the crowd that they drew for their acoustic set and although I had managed to wiggle my way to the front, Liam was sat down on a stool so that anyone from the third row back couldn't see their Britpop hero. Cue shouts of 'STAND UP YA PRICK', 'NOEL WOULD STAND UP' and the wittier 'SIT DOWN IF YOU LOVE MAN U' .  I predict that Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will turn up at Kingston in a demonstration of 'whatever our Liam can do, I can do fucking better...a''ight?' 



Magistrates

The Magistrates had it all together back in 2009, on the verge of huge success. Unfortunately the promise of a debut album never actually materialized and the band went their separate ways. Last month the band were on stage together once more with their new(ish) single 'When We're Apart' as they tested the water. The band create a vibrant, party atmosphere with their electro-dance beat which enables the crowd to just let go of their inhibitions. Hopefully 2014 will see a release of an album to accompany them on their tour. 


Best Moments


Leaving work one night, I had a couple of hours to kill before heading over to New Slang to see The Front Bottoms, my favourite American band. There was no point in heading home so me and my boyfriend decided to amble round Kingston before we spotted Brian, the lead singer of the Front Bottoms, come out of the club. He was rather restless before the gig and so we gave him a quick tour of Kingston. It was rather surreal as we chatted away about many different things, such as explaining to him why it is not okay to be a Milwall supporter. We ended up giving him our Kingstonian scarf to make sure that he went away supporting a decent 'soccer' team. My 2014 prediction is that one day he'll turn up on the terrace to see Kingstonian play. 




My inability to grasp modern technology manifested itself on the worst possible day. My camcorder would chose not to work on the day I had my first ever live interview wouldn't it? However it was fantastic getting the opportunity to interview Mutineers as it felt just more like a friendly conversation, even if I'm still struggling to get the footage from my phone to my computer. I can see Mutineers making more of a name for themselves in 2014 with their upcoming tour whereas I'll be beginning a one-woman war against technology.












*not actually psychic




Sunday 15 December 2013

BAMBI at Camden's Barfly


With the recent release of their debut single 'Reap From The Dying Love', BAMBI  hit the Camden scene  on Friday 13th. The night wasn't unlucky for anybody involved as they played one of my favourite intimate venues, Barfly.

The band have already been featured on NME's Radar,BBC Radio One's 'Introducing with Jen and Ally', BBC London and Hollyoaks alongside catching the attention of Tom Robinson, Absolute Radio and XFM. The BAMBI lads managed to deliver these promises without any pretensions. Placing their unrivaled, contagious energy into their stage presence and musical delivery, BAMBI created an electrical atmosphere in the room. My usual taste in music are songs that include just one aggressive guitar line, so when I saw that there were not one, not two, but three guitarists, not including the bassist, I was rather dubious. However the intricate layering worked wonders and created a vibe not dissimilar to The Foals whereas the echoing vocals brought to mind certain elements of Echo and the Bunnymen.

The set was a relatively short one with just six songs, but I found that this was still quite impressive given that they have only just released their debut single and the accompanying video for it. With their casual, down to earth personalities, the only place that BAMBI can go from here is up, up and away. Although I hope the bassist does recover from what I assume is stage fright, as he tucked himself away at the back the whole time.


Tuesday 10 December 2013

'Lose All Memory'... Review and Interview with the Bauer Boys


Just under a year ago, I discovered Bauer and the joys of their album 'Sleeping Giant'. However despite having the album pumping into my eardrums on a daily basis, I was starting to suffer from Bauer-related withdrawal symptoms, especially as they were being near to silent in the Twitter world.  Thankfully, medicine arrived yesterday in the form of a new album  'Lose All Memory' released on iTunes.  'Lose All Memory' is a compilation of B sides, remixes and demos which didn't quite make it on to 'Sleeping Giant'.

Despite being intended as an almost 'throw the good stuff in the pot' album, I find it still has a running theme within it's core, that of heartbreak and romanticism. Greg Matthews' effortless vocals has a soft edge to it, which although harmonious, still captures a certain emotional rawness which is one of the many aspects that make Bauer a unique band, there's never any fake elements. The album contains many similarities to 'Sleeping Giant' (which it would!) but look out for 'Starting Again (dub mix)' which I expected to be out of my comfort zone with due to it being a dub mix, but I find it is balanced perfectly.

I also asked Bauer everything that had to be known about 'Lose All Memory''


You seemed to release the album with not much prior build up or promotion compared to 'Sleeping Giant', did you feel that not much promotion was needed this time round?

That's mainly because we sort of wanted to save that shot in the arm for the next proper album really. We want the expectation to be there for the new stuff that we're working on at the moment. This one is more of a bridging thing, but that's not to say the material isn't to a high standard - some of the tracks are possibly better than a certain amount of the 1st album stuff - it was just about how things flowed. With the next record there will be more plugging, a music video, a tour etc.


The album contains an acoustic track (The Lights Go Down) and a dub mix (Starting Again). What inspired you to go down two separate paths in one album? 

The tracks were both originally b sides...if you didn't already know this record is a mixture of songs that didn't feature on the 1st album (simply because they just didn't fit with the flow of things) and b sides, demos & remixes. We felt the songs were too strong to never release and it was a great opportunity for our fans the hear them whilst we work on the next album proper. It also wipes the slate clean for us and gives us the chance to go down new avenues with the next album *proper* which we're working hard on in the studio at the moment.

    Lose All Memory' centers on love and heartbreak. Who is the lyricist in the group and what was the inspiration behind the theme?

    Greg the vocalist writes all the lyrics. It's interesting in a way that you're saying this because a lot of these tracks come from different time periods but the way it's been sequenced you wouldn't really tell as a new listener. A lot of Smiths fans love "hatful of hollow" which is sort of a similar album to this one in that it's cobbled together, but you wouldn't really know. We worked on the sequencing for a while to make it flow like a standard studio album....so it's a real compliment that you feel that there seems to be a defined theme throughout!


    It must be quite difficult putting pen to paper for new material, do any of you have any 'habits' that helps you get inspired?

    Writing methods have changed and developed throughout the years. In the early days we'd slave away in the rehearsal studio for hours on end at songs....and that can sometimes get frustrating and labourous. Nowadays the writing process has changed in that a lot of the time we're coming up with fully structured songs away from rehearsals and taking them straight into record....which can be a risky way of doing things, but luckily the chemistry and level of musicianship is really strong so it's something we're comfortable in doing.


    Where will you be stopping off on your 2014 tour?

    I think the answer is we probably won't be doing until at least next summer. We're looking at a single in early summer, another single in perhaps october and then the album in November/ December. We're working on making the next album a real killer and thinking about getting it out for this time next year - so then we'd have put out 3 albums in 3 years. We were joking around recently saying that if we can do it so that it's 4 in 4 years we'll be in a position to release a best of album in year 5!


    And finally, I think we should start a campaign to get the album a Christmas #1, how would you react if you knocked an X Factor (or whatever the kids are watching these days) album of the charts?

    The charts are such a corporate bland joke that we didn't even submit the release for a possible chart placing - and i think that says a lot and reflects generally how many talented bands & musicians feel about the current situation in the music industry. It'd be pretty cool to sell a million copies and stick it up to the man though! Just to let them know we're too cool to bother with the fuckers and their major label chart con.

    'Lose All Memory' is available to download from iTunes now.