Of course not a word about the big North American brown bear. More about a New York based band that is on duty since 15 years. Now they announce a new record Painted Ruins for mid of August. I have to admit that I lost them out of my focus a few years ago and the more I was gladly surprised that the band didn't changed their sound with this new songs. They still play their perfect arranged psychedelic folk with great harmonies in singing. The song „Three of ring“ begins well dull, with dickey rumbling Drum-Machine with synthetic bass, electronically, almost quite dirtily, discoid. One only still waits for Thom Yorke. How ever, it changes. A guitar pulls affectionate spirals. There come choirs for several voices, like by blue fog, over there from the other hill, they penetrate to our ear. There is a long instrumental held passage in the middle section. Raindrops, splashing, to breaths, bubbling, longing.
Their second release from the new album is quiet different. Moving more to electronic sounds but never lose their trademarks: elegance and ghostly harmonies. Something between folk-disco and Krautpop.
Now that my visitors have gone I am back in usual life and find the time to my things when ever I want it. Not that I didn't like to have them around but I was ruled to make them a great stay. So I am looking forward to next weekend when I go the the annual open-air festival with my youngest brother. Many bands will appear and only a few I decided to watch definitely until now. One of them are Cigarettes After Sex, which I featured a couple of times during the last years. I really love their sound combining chamber pop with a bit of ambient and sometimes Jazz and country. Another great song for Sunday Morning.
A few days ago the ticket for Mark Lanegan's concert in Stuttgart arrived. My area is sadly a desert for good live music and can't be compared to Cologne or Hamburg. All the great (new) bands mostly don't stop here. As far as I know one of the reasons is that the government requests a lot of taxes for concerts. Anyway I am glad that Mark Lanegan will appear in four weeks because his latest record Gargoyle is one of his best. I know him since his early days with Screaming Trees and later with Queens Of The Stone Age and liked his way of singing. His baritone is unbelievable and expressive. I think only Lee Hazlewood and Leonard Cohen are more punchy. The more I listen to Gargoyle the more I think that this is one of the best records this year - so far.
During the last days I didn't found the time to work on my blog because my former wife and her husband visited me and I had to take times for them when I came home from work. Yesterday we went to our local pub to play some pool. For the fact that I didn't play so often I was still good in playing. Seems like you don't unlearn something you trained in your younger days. Today's track is from the latest record by Ulrika Spacek a new London based quintet. A song with fuzzy sound and its loud-quiet dynamics referees to Sonic Youth and Preoccupation makes it worth to listen to.
It is 40 years ago the Congos released their groundbreaking album Heart Of The Congos. produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry. A few weeks ago it was released as an special edition with different mixes of this fantastic record. If I would name this record in this genre it will be in my top three of all time.
Almost three weeks ago I had myself a wonderful and unforgtable time with the other blogging mates in Glasgow. Sitting at home and wearing the Postcard-shirt (thanks again JC) I think it is time to feature this label on this place. Postcard Records was a superb Scottish independent label formed by Alan Horne back in 1979 an the label's motto The Sound Of Young Scotland was programme.Also short lived Postcard was a massive influence of C81/C86 movements. I have to admit that this label brought out artists that were still found on my turntable. Also the the output by former members of the early bands.
One of the first releases on the Postcard were Orange Juice. I bought their first album because I enjoyed the cover. Two dolphins jumping out of the water that made me think musicians that put this picture on the cover can't be bad at all. And surprisingly the music fitted to me very well. Based on post-punk guitars they created a very unique sound. The songs had hooks and the voice of Edwyn Collins was far different to any other at this time around.
From Edinburgh they signed Josef K., another post-punk band and they borrowed their name by Franz Kafka and the protagonist of his novel The Trial. Founder Paul Haig mixed post-punk guitars with funk and disco. Very new and not everybody's cup of tea at this time. For me they opened ears to different genres and I understood that this would be normal in the subsequent years. Sadly these pioneers hadn't the success they should have.
The Go-Betweens from Brisbane released only one single on Postcard but you can hear on this early one that they had a massive potential and talent that other companies also saw. I Need Two Heads is nothing more or less a classic of the band and their live sets.
This post wouldn't be complete if I did not mention Roddy Frame and Aztec Camera. I remember a few discussions in the early 80's if it is good that songwriter jump on the independent train. I hardly had to fight about my opinion that every good record can be named as independent when it wasn't released by major companies. On his first records Roddy Frame showed us his talent in singing and songwriting that got better the older he got.
Postcard Records were resuscitated by Horne in 1992 for three years that brought us back Paul Quinn with The Independent Group for some great records.
In three weeks I will join my youngest brother again for the annual open-air festival in Mannheim. Bands and timetable are out now and I have to deal with the bands because a lot of them are new to me. They announced a band from Tokyo, Japan called Kikagaku Moyo. Wiki describes them as a Japanese psychedelic band. Their name means translated 'geometric patterns' - whatever they will tell us with this name. And indeed it is psychedelic music that was made in the late 60's. I ever called this music drug music because if you were on an other level you might not understand what it means. Anyway, not only a retro band, actually a band that lives this sound.
