London's alternative-rock radio station, XFM, will be airing a 24-hour Breakfast Show this Saturday, June 21st. The event is sponsored by Time Out, and is being billed as XFM's All Day Breakfast with Time Out. The day-long broadcast will be helmed by Alex Zane (pictured above), the host of XFM London's daily Breakfast Show. The broadcast will feature eight live gigs from different venues around London. All of the gigs are free. Tickets were given to XFM listeners and fans of the individual bands.

The live gigs that will be broadcast live on XFM London this Saturday are as follows:

One Night Only, The Camden Barfly (6 a.m. BST, 1 a.m. Eastern)
Mystery Jets & Noah And The Whale, The Borderline (9 a.m. BST, 4 a.m. Eastern)
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. The Fly (11:30 a.m. BST, 6:30 a.m. Eastern)
Paul Weller & The Rifles, Koko (1 p.m. BST, 8 a.m. Eastern)
Feeder & Brandon Steep, ULU (4 p.m. BST, 11 a.m. Eastern)
Guillemots & Wild Beasts, Union Chapel (7 p.m. BST, 2 p.m. Eastern)
Primal Scream, 229 Great Portland Street (10 p.m. BST, 5 p.m. Eastern)
Young Knives, 100 Club, Oxford Street (2:30 a.m. BST, 9:30 p.m. Eastern)

NOTE: The live gig broadcast times listed above are given first in BST (British Summer Time) followed by Eastern time (US East Coast). There is a five-hour time difference between London and New York City.

For additional information on the XFM All Day Breakfast, go to http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/xfm/xfms-all-day-breakfast.

To listen to any or all of the broadcast this Saturday, go to http://www.xfm.co.uk/ and click on the "listen live" button at the top right of the page. The All Day Breakfast broadcast will also be available for seven days after the event via XFM London's "Listen Again" function.

Talvez o meu gosto tenha mudado muito de lá para cá, mais veio a surpresa: que disco fantástico, que banda incrível. Não sei se isso é possível, mas deu um novo sentido à palavra avant-garde no mundo indie. Avant-Garde é vanguarda. Guillemots é vanguarda, é inovador. E tem brasileiro por trás disso, o guitarrista e baixista da banda, MC Lord Magrão é brasileiro, ex-integrante de uma banda chamada Vazio (que eu particularmente nunca tinha ouvido falar). Aliás, cada integrante é de uma nacionalidade diferente. Além de Magrão, a contrabaixista e percussionista Aristazabal Hawkes é canadense, o baterista Greig Stewart é escocês e o vocalista, tecladista e guitarrista Fyfe Dangerfield é inglês.

Through The Windowpane (2006)

01. Little Bear
02. Made-Up Lovesong #43
03. Trains to Brazil
04. Redwings
05. Come Away with Me
06. Through the Windowpane
07. If the World Ends
08. We're Here
09. Blue Would Still Be Blue
10. Annie, Let's Not Wait
11. And If All...
12. São Paulo

Com pouco tempo de banda, o gUiLLeMoTS (também pode ser escrito assim, mas deixemos o miguxês de lado) conseguiu lançar em 2006 um debut incrível. Começa com uma bonita introdução de cordas em Little Bear, passando para o duo de faixas mais pops do disco, Made-Up Lovesong #43 e Trains To Brazil (é, Brazil). A continuação é boa, passando por músicas boas como If The World Ends, a mais melódica do disco (repare na frase em português dita, aparentemente por uma criança, bem no final desta faixa "Mas o mundo não acabou...ainda...de qualquer forma". Só notei isso com fone de ouvido. É, influências de MC Magrão) e Annie Let's Not Wait, até chegar à epopéia que é São Paulo. A faixa de quase 12 minutos, passando por partes instrumentais enormes, uma parte mais triste em que repete-se os versos "sometimes I can cry for miles" e cita o nome da cidade brasileira em "while on the streets of old san paolo I watch my baby being burned". A parte alegre da faixa (a melhor do disco todo, na minha opinião) fica na repetição dos versos "thrown across water", e um final meio latino (?). Na verdade não consegui classificar, é demais.

Download

Red (2008)

1. Kriss Kross
2. Big Dog
3. Falling Out Of Reach
4. Get Over It
5. Clarion
6. Last Kiss
7. Cockateels
8. Words
9. Standing On The Last Star
10. Don't Look Down
11. Take Me Home

2 anos depois, o Guillemots lança seu segundo álbum, Red. É um disco bom também, mas se mantém inferior ao primeiro. Red possui mais abundância de elementos pop-rock, diminuição dos instrumentos clássicos, mas o vocal de Fyfe continua o mesmo. Kriss Kross, a primeira faixa, é a que mais tem vocação de hit. Sua introdução sensacionalista dá este tom. Depois vem Big Dog, a única música que eu consegui cantar de sing-a-long nas primeiras escutadas. Falling Out of Reach, a faixa seguinte, é a mais, digamos, romântica. Depois, aparece Get Over It, a mais animada e completamente pop do disco. É legal notar a presença de vocais femininos neste trabalho, que devem ser provavelmente da contrabaixista Aristazabal, na faixa Last Kiss (muito boa) e Clarion. Cockateels, também um ponto alto, vem em seguida. Após ela, nenhuma faixa me chamou muita atenção, mas nenhuma mostra baixa qualidade gritante.

Download

Além destes 2 discos completos, a banda lançou 3 EPs (I Saw Such Things in My Sleep EP, Of the Night e From the Cliffs) e 7 singles

Clipe de Made-Up Lovesong #43

Site Oficial | MySpace

Autor: Cédric Fanti

Headline acts confirmed to appear at the July 2008 iTunes Festival: London include James Blunt, McFly, N.E.R.D., The Zutons, Chaka Khan, Death Cab For Cutie, The Ting Tings, Feeder, CSS, Jamie Lidell, Pendulum, Gabriella Cilmi,The Script, Guillemots and Lightspeed Champion

All tickets are free and for competition winners only. Further information on this year's line-up and how to win tickets can be found at: www.ituneslive.co.uk

Per presentare i Guillemots posso collegarmi al post di ieri di Ricky: la band ha infatti accompagnato Rufus Wainwright nel suo UK tour del 2005, conquistandosi un po' di visibilità. Poi, nel 2006, l'album d'esordio, Through the windowpane, è comparso nella rosa dei favoriti per l'assegnazione del Mercury Prize inglese, anche se alla fine a spuntarla sono stati gli Arctic Monkeys.

La musica dei Guillemots, spesso ricondotta al filone indie e new wave, è un meltin' pot di influenze e stili eterogenei, in parte riflesso della diversa provenienza geografica dei componenti del gruppo (il cantante Fyfe Dangerfield è di Birmingham, il chitarrista è brasiliano, canadese il bassista e scozzese il percussionista). Il video di Blogoteque ci propone una versione street-live di Annie Let's not wait, uno dei primi singoli. Sul fondo acustico della chitarra cresce un baccanale  sonoro di gusto decisamente etnico, con un battito di mani incessante, percussione di bacchette su un lampione, incursioni di sax e addirittura ticchettare di una vecchia macchina da scrivere. Un happening musicale che per strada farebbe fermare molti.

LINK: sito ufficiale; recensione di OndaRock; sito Blogoteque, per curiosità e se capite il francese

The track, Made Up Lovesong #43.

The group, Guillemots.

Stuck in my library for an awful long time already, but I still like it. A nice and cute track, mixed in with a little randomness.

I originally wanted to put the live version of Garden by Dir en grey, but I'm... moody isn't the right word, ah yes, melancholic. I'm too melancholic and I wanna switch gears. Will probably post it after I wake up(FYI: it's 5.12am as I type this).

Can't say I feel better, but at least I'm on the way.

G'night folks.

Or rather, Ohayo.

Primero vamos con Yeti. El grupo del ex-Libertine John Hassall saco hace un año un disco en Japón que ellos dicen que mas que un álbum, simplemente es un compilado de las diferentes cosas que habían sacado hasta esa fecha. En su momento lo pusimos aquí, ahora ya no esta pero por suerte Yeti sacarán el que ahora si llaman su disco debut llamado The Legend of Yeti Gonzales. El primer single es Don't Go Back To The One You Love y he aquí el (muy buen) video.

Otra canción nueva es esta, el nuevo single de Glasvegas y creo que es la que más me ha gustado de ellos. Good good. Por cierto, se llama Geraldine: Edit: La versión de Jools Holland

Otros que le entran a la onda de lanzar segundo disco a un año del primero son Little Man Tate. Este verano llegará su segundo disco y por lo pronto tenemos aquí el video del primer sencillo, What Your Boyfriend Said.

Ahora videos de canciones ya conocidas. Que tal que para el segundo single del no-tan-buen-disco de los Guillemots (en mi opinión), se apuntaron a nada mas y nada menos que Ian McKellen. Nice one.

The Courteeners y el ya cuarto single de su debut St. Jude. Esta fue b-side hace mucho pero por suerte se dieron cuenta que daba para mas. De las mejores del disco, se llama No You Didn't, No You Don't

Y por último, Feeder. La verdad creo que We Are The People no es de sus momentos más afortunados, menos para single aunque ya con las escuchadas repetidas me va gustando. El video, 2-3.

Pero mejor este. Miss You fue la primera canción que escuchamos del Silent Cry hace unos meses (la regalaban gratis en su página). Creo que es la mejor del disco y para el video, Feeder lanzó un concurso donde los usuarios subirían sus propuestas a youtube y ya ellos escogerían el ganador. Algo muy weird fue lo que gano, pero me gusta!

Y ya. No nos dejen, Junio es un mes lleno de discos y seguro que tendremos sorpresas aquí al respecto.

E agora o ator aparece em muito melhor forma artística no clipe novo dos Guillemots, "Falling out of reach":

Se você achava Sir Ian McKellen um tanto sumido (seus últimos filmes foram O Código da Vinci e X-Men, ambos de 2006) é só botar na MTV. É isso mesmo. O rei dos palcos ingleses, famoso pelos seus personagens shakespearianos, agora também na versão videoclipe.

Os britânicos indies do Guillemots acabam de lançar seu segundo álbum, Red. O segundo single é este, Falling Out Of Reach. Música bacaninha e tranquila, bem diferente da anterior, a sexy e animada Get Over It.

Boa oportunidade para matar a saudade de Sir Ian, enquanto ele não volta às telas no aguadado The Hobbit, prometido para 2010.

Aliás, atores famosos fazendo pontas ou protagonizando videoclipes inteiros não é nenhuma novidade. Na próxima semana farei uma lista com os 10 melhores. E você pode me ajudar. Qual o videoclipe com um famoso que mais te marcou?

O incansável Justice já tem mais um vídeo. A premiere da violenta Stress saiu no blog do Kanye West, isso que é exclusividade. O vídeo, pode anotar aí, será um dos melhores do ano. O vídeo foi dirigido por Romain Gavras e você pode assistir em uma melhor resolução aqui.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.527285&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Justice - Stress

Depois de 5 anos, Jason Pierce resolveu agraciar o mundo com mais um disco que só quem já desbancou o Radiohead na NME poderia fazer. Esse é o vídeo para o primeiro single de Songs in A&E, para mim, o mais próximo do pop que o space rock pode chegar.

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Spiritualized - Soul On Fire

O Guillemots que estava vindo a todo vapor, resolveu soltar uma balada muito simpática com levada soul deliciosa. A brincadeira com o tempo no vídeo não me convenceu muito, prefiro a música.

Guillemots - Falling Out Of Reach

A nova musa de Woody Allen vai ganhando seu espaço aos poucos. Scarlet Johansson está com o seu primeiro vídeo pronto. Ela começa muito bem acompanhada, participação de David Bowie e músicas de Tom Waits, mas será suficiente? Estou achando tudo muito Sinéad O'Connor perdido no tempo.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.527307&w=425&h=350&fv=id%3Dv59655778%26eID%3D1301797%26enableFullScreen%3D0]

Scarlet Johansson - Falling Down

O Long Blondes e o We Are Scientists lançaram seus segundos álbuns recentemente e já estão com segundo single e vídeo, claro. Enquanto a turma inglesa entrou ou tentou entrar na onda disco, o trio de Nova Iorque acalmou os ânimos e foi dar uma passada nos anos 80. Agora, os americanos chegam com Chick Lit na onda western e a turma de Kate Jackson chega com Guilt, mais um de seus vídeos classudos.

We Are Scientists - Chick Lit

Long Blondes - Guilt

Pra terminar, não exatamente um vídeo, mas a campanha nova da Apple para o seu querido iPod. A trilha é do Ting Tings, o disco mais aguardado do ano essa semana, confere? A música, é a ótima Shut Up and Let Me Go, que você deve ir até o Myspace da dupla e escutar na íntegra várias e várias vezes.

Apple iPod + iTunes

Marcelo Fubah

Psapp: Tiger, My Friend - Good indie/pop/electronic/orchestral stuff. A little cutesy (one song (with this really cool video) is based around samples of kittens and puppies, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Fiona Apple: Tidal - When she's tough and soulful sounding, this is great, but a lot of the quieter stuff just becomes background. Good, but her later albums are better. "Criminal" is still fantastic though.

Guillemots: Through the Windowpane - Reminds me at various times of every really classy eighties pop-rock act, and gets better with each song, even (and maybe especially) when the vocalist gets all wacky. This could become a favourite. Nifty videos for "Trains to Brazil" and "We're Here" (awesome time-lapse)

Manic Street Preachers: This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours - Alright then. MSP's truth - 'We bought a sitar and are now The Beatles.' My truth - ennhh no. "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" rules the world though (creepy video!).

MIA: Kala - Just last week I could NOT stand MIA. Now I cannot stop listening to this album. Bought a copy and am now going about getting everyone else to listen to it. Amazing, insane, world political gangsta Bollywood techno awesomeness. SO CHECK IT OUT. "Paper Planes" is incredible. See also this very slick video for "Jimmy"

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand new releases because yesterday was Tuesday but I was busy.

Portishead:, Third. Their first in a freaking decade, and it is awesome. Check out the video for "Machine Gun"

The Roots: Rising Down - Another damn fine album from The Roots, wicked angry stuff, although not quite as good as Game Theory. Review of this coming probably tomorrow. "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)" is intense. Also a single: "Get Busy"

Also released this past weekend: MARIO KART FOR THE WII. Oh helllllllllllllls yes.

One song from the new one:

"Get Over It" (live on Jonathan Ross)

And one from the old:

"Made Up Love Song #43" (live out on the street somewhere, via La Blogotheque)

How the hell did that guy coming up the stairs not stop and listen?

Nevertheless, there's no doubting the Prize's ability to - overnight, frequently - thrust a struggling yet talented artist into the limelight, thus ensuring a short-term boost in sales. Elsewhere in its history, the nominees and winners have definitely caused me to further investigate a particular artist, as in the case of Antony and the Johnsons in 2005 (who won), and Richard Hawley in 2006 (who didn't).

Though I have no fear in saying that British music is at an all time nadir, it is with some optimism that I would suggest the past twelve months have seen signs of a resurgence among our more experimental and esoteric, risk-taking artists, and I really hope the judges take a careful look at such albums when making their decisions this year. Though I doubt my selections will bear any relation to the real shortlist, here are some British albums that have been released since last August (the usual cut-off point) that I feel the judges would be loath to ignore:

British Sea Power, Do You Like Rock Music? - I'm aware that Pitchfork have significantly decreased their love of BSP since this third LP, owing to it sounding (to their ears) more and more like U2. However, I would have to disagree, since the album is not at all bereft of soul and human interest, and is instead full of sonic experimentation (no doubt stemming from Efrim Menuck's input) and highly agreeable songs that certainly evoke comparison with Echo and the Bunnymen. It's not unthinkable to suggest that the Mercury judges may finally acknowledge the band's existence with a nomination.

Burial, Untrue - It's dubstep at its most evolved. It plainly evokes the unique experience of wondering through the city in the post-club comedown hinterland, and does so with these somewhat familiar 90s-sounding R&B vocals, mutated and squelched alongside harrowing beats.

Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid - Tragically, I haven't actually heard this album yet, but I remain hopeful that, on the basis of their previous work, and the acclaimed reviews this one's been getting, it will be nominated, which would be an apt peak for such a hard-grafting band as Elbow. It's even got a collaboration with Richard Hawley on it.

Foals, Antidotes - One of the most hyped-up British bands for a while, particularly in more adventurous circles, and this, their debut, really didn't disappoint, for me. While it will always plague me as to whether critics would have preferred the Dave Sitek mix, I think it's only appropriate to applaud a band who have taken the far-out branches of math rock, and honed them into what is, in the end, a great pop album. Admittedly, the vocals and lyrics are sometimes on the wrong side of obtuse, but my personal feeling is that the technical virtuosity of the instrumental work far outweighs the album's problems.

Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood - One of my less likely suggestions, particularly since it consists of half an hour's worth of modernist, minimalist classical music composed for one of the most awe-inspiring films I have seen in my entire life. However, there's no denying its scope and beauty, and the unrelentingly bleak mood that it conveys with a traditional orchestra creating wildly experimental sounds. More importantly, I really think it does work as an album, as opposed to just being a soundtrack: the sequencing of the tracks is good; there is an intelligent arc in tone, pace and texture. 

Hot Chip, Made In The Dark - Their third studio effort isn't at all flawless, but I think it is the unexpected things and the constant sense of surprise and wit that might win it a nomination. In Ready For The Floor the band have surely written their perfect Christmas pop song, while elsewhere on the record there's a definite feeling that the band is learning to embrace their live potential in making songs that just build and build, and then take some unexpected step, such as on Hold On.

The Last Shadow Puppets, The Age of the Understatement - It wouldn't be a surprise at all if this was nominated and indeed won the prize, which would be a fairly unprecedented feat for Alex Turner. It may not be at all forward-thinking (not that that stopped Klaxons from taking home the award last year), but it makes up for that by capturing the spirit of Scott Walker ballads, and embellishing solid hooks and vignettes with some of the most lush and inventive orchestration used in this context for a long time.

M.I.A., Kala - An acquaintance of mine believes that this will never win, because the British press remain sceptical of her confused political agenda, and because they don't like music that's so aggressive and wilfully sloganeering. Whatever the outcome, it only just missed the release deadline for last year's shortlist, and I really do believe they'd be foolish to have forgotten about it. On Kala M.I.A. takes all the sonic invention and global influences on Arular, and builds on them with further-reaching production values and slightly less of the banal anecdotes that peppered its predecessor. It's a stunning work, blending a wide range of talents and samples to make something relentlessly attention-seeking.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Raising Sand - Another one of which I've only heard snippets, but, on the basis of what I have heard, it could be a worthy contender. The song selection is fantastic; the arrangements very appropriate; and, of course, in Plant and Krauss there is one of the most effective and unusual vocal pairings for a while.

Portishead, Third - I find it very difficult to write about this album: what is there to say about such a wilfully difficult, tortured album that has universally silenced the critics who thought either that Portishead would never make another album, or that any future album from the band would be an extension of the Bristol sound. It's comparable to Massive Attack's Mezzanine only in the fact that they've followed two albums of (admittedly talented) dinner party music with something you would be scared to expose to young children. Musically, the two albums are completely disparate; similar only in their consistently bleak, grimy tone. Third is alternately mechanical, languid, industrial, chilling, upsetting, unrelenting and apocalyptic. And I love it.

Radiohead, In Rainbows - Radiohead have never won the Mercury Prize, and I don't think they will with In Rainbows either. Though it is their best album since Kid A, I don't think it pushes nearly as many boundaries, and, for me, proved to be a relatively 'easy' listen. It's not that their lifting up their feet and taking the foot off the accelerator of invention and rule-breaking, it's just that they've decided on a more relaxed, soulful tone on this album, which I don't think gels with the forward-thinking agenda of the judges. Nevertheless, it's a delight to listen to.

Spiritualized, Songs in A&E - Every positive review of this album has hit the nail right on the head with an extremely large hammer: it sounds like he's writing and singing from beyond the grave; the music is a distillation of all his best work since the days of Spacemen 3; it's life-affirming music made by someone who almost died. And they're all correct, because the album can be beautiful and moving, and then shift into the full-on, space rock sprawling mess that everyone loves.

Oh, by the way, the biggest mistake the judges ever made was not nominating Field Music's Tones of Town last year. It should have been on the shortlist and it should have won.

C'est au doux son de leur premier EP que je me propose de livrer mes quelques impressions au lendemain du concert tant attendu d'un groupe que je suis avec beaucoup d'attention depuis 2 ans (et avec d'autant plus d'intérêt que j'ai adoré leur second album "Red").

La Maroquinerie s'annonçait comme le cadre idéal pour cette première rencontre live : j'aime décidément cette salle et sa minuscule scène à peine surélevée qui laisse l'artiste à portée du public. Et effectivement Fyfe Dangerfield, le leader pianiste et principal interprète devait être à 50cm du premier rang. Pour cette proximité, on pardonnera même les quelques couacs techniques d'une salle à priori difficile à bien sonoriser. La batterie submerge les nappes instrumentales et couvre souvent plus que de raison la voix haut perchée du chanteur. Dommage pour quelques morceaux dont l'ampleur symphonique mériterait certainement un plus grand dispositif. Tant pis, ce sera pour un prochain Olympia...

En attendant, on aura pu apprécier l'énergie d'un Fyfe virevoltant, la pudeur surprenante de son acolyte féminine troublante de timidité, la technique impressionnante du batteur. Rien que pour ça, rien ne vaudra jamais une petite salle.

Au sortir de ce concert, conclu par un Sao Paulo dantesque (plus de 10 minutes, entre ambiance piano intimiste, comédie musicale et samba ), je garde aussi la surprise de voir les membres du groupe au stand goodies, à ramasser les commandes et rendre la monnaie. L'occasion aussi de serrer la main au batteur et de lui glisser tout le bien que je pense du combo international et hétéroclite qu'est Guillemots.

" See you soon, guys !!"

Guillemots
Nottingham Rock City, 3rd June
Support: Royworld (zzzzzzz)

For better or for worse, no pics for this one. Sorry! (Above pic is from some other show - hence Fyfe's long flowing locks, rather than the messy Dylan-esque mop he sports nowadays)

The Guillemots have been famed for their weird and wacky live shows - improvising songs based off topics suggested by the audience, running through the crowd banging dust bins etc. Tonight, as the foursome play in support of new(ish) album Red, there is none of the quirky theatrics - just a tight, well-played set.

Before I get ahead of myself, I should probably talk about the support act, Royworld.

...

Do I really have to?

I guess so.

Okay. Royworld are very dull. They are, to paraphrase a Monty Python sketch, extremely dull. An appallingly dull band, unimaginative, timid, lacking in initiative, spineless, easily dominated, no sense of humour, tedious company and irrepressibly drab and awful. The singer looks like Elbow's Guy Garvey, with none of the songwriting talent, wit or distinctive voice; the band itself sounds like a second-rate Coldplay-knock-off; the kind of inoffensive rubbish that gets played on Radio 2 (them again) and mobile phone adverts.

Christ, they even look dull

All the songs slowly seemed to dissolve into one - a fact not helped by the lack of any in-between song banter, charming or otherwise (which is rather essential when you're a support act - especially one with such turgid music) - the supposedly "epic" and the "ballads" all sounding the same. I drifted off for a bit - luckily, I was sitting down at this point - and instead started to compile a mix CD for a girl who was at the gig with me, whom I didn't really know - although I quickly found she had a pretty bad, and limited, taste in music (no, she didn't like Royworld - although that would have tied in nicely - but she expressed interest in both Genesis and Travis).

Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime (that's an exagerration, but not by much), the boring foursome (I assume) got bored of themselves too, and sodded off backstage.

Download "Man in the Machine" (if you need proof of how boring they are)
Buy their album (if you're having trouble sleeping)
Royworld on MySpace

After the roadies spend the better part of half an hour setting everything up (want a fun way to pass the time at this part of the gig? Assign one of the roadies a name, and then give them a varied and interesting backstory, including bands they've worked with, and roadie-based awards they've won - although this may only be "fun" if you're as easily amused as my friends and I).

Fyfe and co take to the stage with Mr Dangerfield (please, Lord, let that be his real name) accompanying himself with slightly-pants cheap-ass Casio keyboard on "Made-up Lovesong #43" (only for a couple of verses, then the full band came in), and the band went through some sterling renditions of *deep breath* "Clarion", "Through the Windowpane", "Falling out of Reach", "Last Kiss", "Standing on the Last Star", "Words",
"Don't Look Down", "If The World Ends" - a few slow ballads in the middle here threaten to make the set sag, until a positivley dance-able version of "Annie, Let's Not Wait" (although the pretty muted crowd didn't actually, err, dance) makes an appearance.

It was around the time that the group launched into a punk-rocky version of single "Get Over It" - Fyfe replete in Hoxton-tosspot style glasses - that I realised why Guillemots were a different band live than any other I've seen - they're a proper band. Drummer Greig Stewart and (double) bassist Aristazabal Hawkes' murky jazz pasts have gave them the ability to play, and improvise, fairly flawlessly; guitarist MC Lord Magrão (even less likely to be a real name)'s interest in noise-rock and experimental music (such as Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers) has left him similarly skilled in good playing (or at least, okay playing masked by lots of distortion) and improvising; finally, singer Fyfe Dangerfield has composed classical pieces, and has perfect freakin' pitch.

No wonder they're so Goddamn flawless throughout. These guys are proper musicians.

The group end their set with "We're Here" and "Kriss Kross", bringing things full circle with the lead-off track from the new album. And what a song it is, as Magrão pounds the keyboard and the crowd actually start to dance. A little.

After a quick break, the band return for the encore - starting with a little jam (Fyfe playing drums, lots of people dancing and shouting - including the aformentioned character-developed roadies - and drummer Grieg waving a town crier's bell about), and moving onto a wonderful version of debut album Through The Windowpane's "Trains To Brazil" (Hawkes' vocal "doot-doot-doodoodoodoo-doo"s just-about succesfully filling in for the trumpets) - a song which Fyfe afterwards admits to nearly cracking up in, due to looking at the face crudely drawn on his drummer's large, topless torso - complete with nipples as pupils. I forgot to mention - along with the songs, the muso chops and general originality, Guillemots can also handle stage banter - take that, whats-yer-names (Royworld - Ed)!

It all culminates with "São Paulo", which is pretty long but, thankfully, didn't run on for the 11 minutes it does on record - just as well, as my little wussy legs were starting to hurt (thank God Royworld were so dull I sat down, and nobody danced during Guillemots, then). But overall? Despite a pants support band, a-ok.

Download "Kriss Kross"
Buy Red
Guillemots on MySpace

As time rolled forward to the week of the trip, the size of the gamble we'd made became apparent; sodden rain and strong winds lashed Britain, so only Poseidon knows what's happening at sea. Finally the appointed day arrives and the trip to Northumberland happens. We arrive at Seahouses, to find that no Farne Isle visits that week have taken place, because the seas were too rough for day trippers.

I offer silent penitential prayers to Poseidon and the Zephyrs in the hope that calmer weather is due the next day, and duly the Tempest subsides...

We walk to the harbour and book our trip to the Inner Farne, sailing in the afternoon with Billy Shiel Boat Trips which works out fine, although we are warned we might not be able to disembark onto the Isle 'Because there's a bit of a swell', said in the finest Northumbrian dialect.

The wise should take with them food & drink (no supplies on the island) and a stout hat (for reasons later!) plus all the extra clothing, binoculars/cameras etc.

Once on the boat, we are surrounded by male eider ducks.

Eider ducks (Somateria mollissima)

Then sailing free of the harbour wall, the comments about 'a bit of a swell' become apparent. It's a short 3km journey across the North Sea to the Farnes, about 20 minutes duration.

Seabirds radiate out from the Isles in search of food, so as you approach the Isles the flux of birds begins to increase, and Cormorants (the bigger ones with white fronts) skim the surface, followed later by Shags (the smaller ones dark all over). Then finally, Guillemots and Puffins shoot overhead, some laden with fish for their young.

We arrive at Staple Island, but no landings are allowed, but we get a fine view of the sea cliffs and their residents.

Guillemots (Uria aalge) and Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and Puffins (Fractercula artica)

The Kittiwakes perch precariously on vertiginous drops, oblivious of the danger.

Kittiwakes (Rissa tridatyla)

The hard Dolerite of the cliffs stands out, and this forms the eastern flank of the Great Whin Sill, a formation of igneous rocks that stretches across northern England through Northumberland, Durham and back to the source of the Tees, near High Force.

The boat moves along the islands, and we encounter grey seals, in the water and on the shore.

Grey Seals (Halichoerus grypus)

Finally we arrive at Inner Farne, which is covered by Arctic Terns. We disembark, pay the National Trust fee (steeper than the path up to the island) and are immediately attacked by Terns, both on the head and by more liquid ways... They nest exactly where the path goes, and always seek to defend their territory.

Arctic Terns (Sterna Macrvra)

The walk across the top of the island is colourful (pecks and guano) , but once past the Terns nesting ground you're left alone. I almost missed this delightful nesting Eider duck, given her camouflage.

Eider duck

Along the top are rabbit burrows adopted by Puffins, who arrive, deliver their fish and then depart, all in a quiet undemonstrative way.

Puffin and his burrow

The Puffin numbers seem small, but this may be linked to storms last year which were known to hit the Farne colonies hard, and to other trends in fish stocks

Finally, we encounter the sea cliffs from the land side, with a Guillemot colony, interspersed with Shags and Kittiwakes.

Guillemots and Shags

Guillemots, Shags and Kittiwakes

I'm deeply impressed by this last bird, and as I approach to within 1m, it surveys me with its unfathomable, implacable, sea green eyes.

A nesting Shag

A visiting Pied Wagtail seeks to sneak a piece of chocolate, but it's unlucky. Before reaching the small visitor centre, the Terns vent their fury again for interrupting their peace. This gives an impression of being mobbed. As the bird attacks, it pecks your head, wheels away and attacks, again and again. It's got all day for this game. Have you?

In the visitor centre, the following notes are offered to visitors, describing some of the more common birds and fauna on the Isles.

There are 3 types of Terns on the Island; see

for more assurance on how to tell the difference. I only saw Arctic Terns for sure!

As a final farewell, the Arctic Tern colony by the jetty explodes into the air as we depart, showering everyone in noise and an occasional spot of guano, which hits one of our party, greeted with self deprecating laughter. 'Well shot, sir'.

All in all, an amazing day, and well worth the gamble.

I was vaguely hoping that Monday the 19th's Guillemots do at The Wulfrun would have The Courtesy Group as secret openers², but I didn't hold out any massive expectation. As it turned out I didn't manage to get there until it was time for the last few songs from the main/tour support band Royworld³ anyway. Theirs was the more stadium-rock-ish end of modern mainstream indie, with a potentially-interesting bit of layering with all the keyboard sounds 'n' such but no feeling of life and/or soul about them. They seemed to go down well with the (large) crowd, though, so I wouldn't listen to me if I were you.

Guillemots are a band who continually turn out to be A) a lot less outré and unusual then they're commonly made out to be, and B) a little bit less outré and unusual than you actually expect them to be even when you take 'A' into account⁴. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a bad thing, though. They play ‘pretty’ songs for the most part, and there's nothing wrong with that⁵ .

So yes, they do have a nice mix of sounds and there’s a bit of variation to them, it picks up to the realms of energetic at times (“Kriss Kross” will indeed make you jump⁶) and epic at others, but always returns to “Aaah, that was fairly lovely”. Your man there’s voice is all over the place but it doesn't really spoil anything. He had a good manner with the hecklers, too - tolerant at first, then just outright God-damn cold to silence them exactly at the point where everyone was sick of hearing their nonsense.

I really enjoyed them. They’re a band I feel I should have more to say about. But I haven't.

(The Birmingham Post bit doesn’t have a hell of a lot to say either, but succeeds in stretching it out a bit more than me. EDIT: The Birmingham Live review is here).

The original plan for Tuesday the 20th was to go and see The Ting Tings, but a glance at their website that morning revealed two things: 1) That their “That’s Not My Name” single had hit number one in the national charts two days prior⁷, and 2) that the gig was sold out. “Hmmph,” I said, and resolved myself to not going. Come the actual night, of course, I received intelligence via text message⁸ of the fact that they were letting people pay on the door. Double hmmph. It was too late by then, of course. Triple hmmph.

No point getting bitter about it now, I suppose.

To the ever-‘orrible Bar Academy⁹ on the Wednesday, for a touch of noisiness from Today Is The Day. I arrived in time for the last few songs by Complete Failure¹⁰, but from such as I heard they were just your ordinary grind with nothing grabbing me.

In spite of their crappy name, Jucifer took the Russ L ‘Best Set Of The Night’ Award¹¹ in a walk. They’re a two-piece, consisting of a chick on guitar + vocals + red hair and a bloke on drums + mania + Davey Crocket hat. The base element of what they played was a Melvins-ish sort of groove, but with added sludgy bits and blasty bits and most importantly¹² a ridiculously huge sound. It would’ve been big coming from any band, but from a two-piece it had to be heard to be believed. Awesome, awesome stuff, and it’s just a shame that the quieter vocals were lost in the mix as I think they may have added even more to the experience. Definitely a band to see again next time they come over, anyway.

This was the third time I’d seen Today Is The Day and they sounded a lot more metal this time than I remember them being – a lot more about the riffs and rigid beats, and less ‘sonic evocation of boiling water’. My memories quite often seem to warp over time, though, so I wouldn’t read a fat lot into that¹³. I can say that this was probably the least effective of the three times I’ve seen them, though – you won’t find many bands more destructive-sounding and it was ace for a fair bit, but after a while the whole thing started to seem heading toward the boundaries of the outlying regions of the disputed zone next to ‘one dimensional’. A few parts where your man Austin sang on his own over a distorted synth backing track were presumably meant to break it up a bit, but didn’t have that sort of effect.

Please note that I’m not saying they were bad by any means, and I would say I enjoyed their set to some degree, but I did find myself skipping the encore¹⁴ and leaving after the end of the main set. I could actually hear them still blasting away from the bus stop near Masshouse Crossroads, which I thought was pretty cool.

(Thee Claw has not one but two posts about this gig¹⁵, the latter including comical tales of getting lost on the Queensway).

Hey, I wrote about a Today Is The Day gig and didn’t make a single ‘Steve Austin’ joke. I can’t help but feel that I should get some sort of reward.

Footnotes

1) Not that I go to anywhere near as many as I used to.

2) Just imagine seeing them in a great big venue like this. It'd be surreal. And they're pretty surreal to begin with.

3) Isn’t that a town on the Norfolk Broads?

4) It’s difficult to divine precisely who is at fault here.

5) This is me getting old, presumably.

6) Yes, I imagine they have heard that one before.

7) Blimey! I knew they were supposed to be quite the up-and-coming band and all the rest of it, but I didn’t realise they were already that famous. Still, I approve. “That’s Not My Name” is a gloriously fun superpoppers summit between “Hey Mickie” and “My Sharona” and completely deserves to get a write-up on Popular one day, which is (I believe) the first prize in this sales-competition-lark.

8) Now there’s something you don’t often get chance to say.

9) My thoughts from then still apply now.

10) I believe that translates as ‘Epic Fail’ in your modern parlance.

11) Best Set Of The Week, in fact. They may even have just about nicked Best Set Of The Month.

12) Well, sort of.

13) Also: I’m quite stupid.

14) Encores are a bloody ridiculous idea anyway.

15) Although when the fella says “maybe 80 people were there watching” what he actually means is “less than half that number were there watching”.

Abu vai fazer uma coisa: bato esta frase e ordeno-lhe que mude cada "a" em "akka" e cada "o" em "ulla", e lá vem uma frase que parece finlandês:

Akkabu fakkaz akkagullarakka umakka cullaisakka: bakkatulla estakka frakkase e ullardenulla akka Akkabu mudakkar cakkadakka "akka" em "akkakkakka" e cakkadakka "ulla" em "ullaka" e lakká vem umakka frakkase que pakkarece finlakkandês.

palavra, palabra, mot, parola, word, Wort, ord, I think life would be so much easier if they had no words, yeah, I think life would be so much easier if they had no words

blame it on the words
blame it on the words
blame it on the words

Eu apenas sorriria pra você quando estivesse feliz, e você derramaria uma lágrima quando estivesse triste

A vida seria muito mais fácil se não existissem palavras.

Guillemots -  Take Me Home

Since today seems to be the day of keeping to promsises, I guess it's time for the (previously weekly, now monthly) Akuhei Bakery mix.

This month, it's "Sad Indie Boys"; and it does exactly as it says on the tin. While not all the songs sound sad (although Weezer, Lightspeed Champion and The Smiths definetly do), they all have a somehwat melancholic feel, in their lyrics, general sound or otherwise (especially the opening Mystery Jets track: " Nothing more nothing less, One night of love to put my head in a mess, Is that you on the bus? Is that you on the train? You wrote your number on my hand, And it came off in the rain").

Same with the Joy Division-aping Interpol, We Are Scientists and Grandaddy's aching nostalgia. And, while Dntel and Orange Juice don't seem that "sad", they've always had a bit of a melancholic air about them for me - the Orange Juice one may be explained due to it's appearance in that Hallam Foe film.

Anyway, regardless of my sub-professional banter, here's the mix!

Tracklisting
1.Mystery Jets - "Young Love"
2.Interpol - "Slow Hands"
3.We Are Scientists - "Textbook"
4.Dntel - "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan"
5.The Fratellis - "Whistle For The Choir"
6.Grandaddy - "AM 180"
7.Bloc Party - "This Modern Love"
8.Test Icicles - "Interlude"
9.Weezer - "Undone (The Sweater Song)"
10.Orange Juice - "Blue Boy"
11.Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
12.Lightspeed Champion - "Perfect Situation"
13.Supergrass - "Late In the Day"
14.Yeti - "Merry Go Round"
15.The Smiths - "Asleep"
16.Guillemots - "Made Up Love Song #43"

Download it!

Guillemots - Red

http://www.thefugitivemotel.org.uk/?p=368

The Feeling - Join With Us

http://www.thefugitivemotel.org.uk/?p=336

Whiskycats - Whiskycats

http://www.thefugitivemotel.org.uk/?p=325

Some live reviews coming up for The Whip and Mystery Jets too...

This is an independent site run by a friend of mine, and the reviews are all written by a small group of music fans. It has great music reviews and features, so check it out...

This all sounds rather hyperbolic I realise, but Guillemots’ debut album Through The Windowpane had such a deep impact on me that I feel it’s deserving. Although I had immediately fallen in love with the glorious euphoria of their singles, the full album was more a grower. After several months of occasional listening I came back to Through The Windowpane and wondered what I had been missing before. If anything had thrown me it’s that debut albums just aren’t supposed to sound like that. They don’t begin with a bold, radio-unfriendly orchestral ballad, run through a gambit of unique and yet accessible songs, and finish with an eleven-minute epic masterpiece of melodic madness. It was like nothing else I’d heard and yet almost everything I could want from an album was there in those twelve songs.

What compounded my adoration was my situation at the time. I had made the decision to travel the world, saying goodbye, for a while, to my girlfriend, family and friends. I was on an exciting adventure but alone in the world, happy to be there but facing constant trepidation. And something in those songs seemed to speak to me, empathise with me, console me and reassure me. The album deals with love, loss, fear, departure and travel to new places. My circumstances put me in the perfect place to receive each line that magically flowed from Fyfe Dangerfield’s lips. Too many nights to count, I fell asleep with his beautiful voice ringing around my head, thinking of those I had left behind. At times I was terrified I had made the wrong decision but that music was my constant, faithful companion.

Of course with such great love comes the fear that it may end. Or, when you’re talking about music at least, that this kind of reaction might not be reproduced in the future. However Guillemots are not a band who were ever going to stand still or to try to recreate something they have already succeeded so admirably in doing. It’s no surprise then that Red has been criticised by some in the mainstream press for making inroads into genres far removed from their original brand of orchestral pop. Much has been made of the contemporary RnB influences with names like Prince, Timbaland and even, err, Girls Aloud trotted out at regular occurrences, and much of this comment has been fair and even useful. ‘Big Dog’ is the most obvious stopping point with its booty shakin’ rhythms, falsetto vocal turns and sharp production. There’s also ‘Last Kiss,’ the first album track with lead vocals provided by the band’s double-bassist Aristazabal Hawkes. Arista’s soft feminine vocals introduce an entirely new quality to Guillemots’ sound, and though it would at first be easy to dismiss it as something of a filler track, a closer listen reveals it as something more serious and one of the band’s most dancefloor-oriented songs to date. In fact it’s fair to say that Guillemots don’t have any filler tracks; indeed one of the most fantastic things about this band is that you know they never do anything without giving it their all and that they’ll have debated into the small hours before putting each song to bed. Even if the results aren’t 100 percent successful from a listener’s point of view, it’s certainly never down to want of trying on the group’s part.

   'Get Over It' - Guillemots

Despite the supposed emphasis on RnB style pop, Red by no means stops there and there’s so much more to these tracks than any kind of Justin Timberlake take off. At a recent live performance, the band produced a heavier, more guitar-based sound than I’d ever heard them perform before, with even ‘Big Dog’ featuring more rock and roll debauchery than anything you might expect to be compared with Timbaland. (For more on that gig take a look at my review for Gigwise: here). Equally a soulful sound creeps into other songs on the record (although not for the first time). ‘Falling Out of Reach’ is a clear example, beginning as an acoustic ballad and building to the sound of a lush choir. The hook on this song is gorgeous but there’s something about those backing voices that seems overdone – not over the top as such, just a little out of place and unconvincing.

My other criticism of ‘Falling’ takes me to the one area of Guillemots’ songwriting that has ever really irked me: the lyrics. Fyfe himself has admitted he’s not the most eloquent of writers and it’s hardly surprising to hear him say on this album that “life would be so much easier if they had no words”. Though his captivating, if abstract, imagery is largely a sufficient partner to the music (and I can even put up with “Big heart/Big hug/Big dog/That’s what I want), when you have a melody as enchanting as the chorus of ‘Falling’ there’s something simply unsatisfying about effectively hearing the same line repeated three times. It’s as if you know there should be other words there instead, better words, and they’re on the tip of your tongue but they just won’t come out. Sometimes, as with all good authors, all good musicians need a good editor. Someone to throw their lyric sheet at them and shout ‘Get out and don’t come back ‘til you’ve written something decent!’ ‘Falling Out of Reach’ is a song which offers an awful lot, but which should give so much more. Having said that, Red covers a lot of lyrical ground, extending the themes of the first album to include frustration (sexual and otherwise), hopelessness and escapism. For a record so full of upbeat sounds it’s actually pretty dark.

Returning to the music, there are plenty of other directions in which Red pulls the listener, from the overwhelming and menacing opening notes of ‘Kriss Kross,’ to the electronic beats of ‘Don’t Look Down.’ Non-specific Middle/Far Eastern sounds are also thrown around liberally in several places, sometimes without a strong purpose. This culminates in ‘Cockateels’, which is probably the most overproduced thing the band have ever done and arguably far too shiny for its own good (and it’s not the only song on the album you could say that about). Still, all the songs have an inherent beauty that makes it difficult for me not to lose myself in their sonic multiplicity.

Despite all this experimentation, Red by no means makes a clean break with the past and some of the shimmering pop of the band’s debut makes a strong appearance, as with the glistening  ‘Standing on the Last Star,’ dreamy closer ‘Take Me Home, and the sweet, if initially unmemorable ‘Words,’ which features Norwegian indie singer Ida Maria. The most familiar element throughout the album is Fyfe’s delicious and emotive voice and the gorgeous melodies that emanate from within him. There is something so comforting about his vocals, like an old friend returning home, and this is true even when the arrangements push the songs into new territory as with the bleepy ‘Clarion’. (I wasn’t that surprised to learn that the song was actually written by Fyfe in 2003 before Guillemots’ formation and has been given new life in this version.)

With so many different threads running through the album, the all-important question is does it all hold together? At first, the answer appears to be no and the first few tracks seem to veer wildly in all manner of directions as if the band had so many ideas rattling around they had to get them out as quickly as possible in case their collective heads explode. But things settle down and seem more cohesive as the album progresses and, on top of this, the more I listen to the album the more I begin to see how it all fits together. Once the initial shock has subsided it no longer seems like such a bumpy ride, less like a random collection of genre bending songs and more like a thoughtful statement of musical expression. The production, which can seem brash and overdone at first, gradually reveals itself to have plenty of light and shade, although it never loses its polished edges.

In spite of their fierce attempt to craft a big pop record, Guillemots’ lack of chart success is not that surprising: they remain too weird for the mainstream market and too slick for the alternative market. And because they’re not four skinny guys with guitars and Converse trainers, they won’t make it with the NME kids. Press reaction has varied wildly and, as Red’s rapid slide from number nine to well outside of the top 40 shows, ultimately Guillemots remain something of a niche act: brilliant to some, unworthy of such praise to others and downright repellent to a few. Even though I am well aware of the flaws that would enrage some listeners, I am placed squarely in that first bracket. I can see why many would be put off by Guillemots’ sentimental tunes and words, their vocal acrobatics, and their seemingly desperate attempts to have a bash at every genre in the musical catalouge, but I just love these songs too much to care. I can’t justly compare Red with its predecessor for that record means too much to me for a fair fight, but with their second album Guillemots have surprised not disappointed me and the more I listen, the more I discover. The band remain determined to push ideas and do so without losing those things that made them special in the first place. Their musical experimentation has always been a little self-conscious, but their weirdness has always been matched by their effortless command of melody. Even if they forcefully seek out unusual sounds, it has only ever, in my opinion, added to their abilities to create perfect pop records. With Guillemots, all the arguments in the world couldn’t stop this music from taking over my emotions. And that’s what truly great pop music is: something that has the ability to make you feel better, or feel worse, or just want to dance around, and sometimes all of the above at the same time.

Their second album is a mixed bag. There's a fuck-load of hooks in there, near every song is bursting with them. But some of the tracks are annoying - Standing On The Last Star, I'm looking at you - and I have the feeling that the album as a whole is pretty ordinary. I'm not sure why, because individually tracks like Kriss Kross, Big Dog, Words, Take Me Home, they're all great.

Maybe it needs some time to bed in. It does sound fucking ace though - in terms of the acoustics of it all.