A chat with Slow Club. Well, half of Slow Club. Whatever, just don't call them twee!

It Doesn't Have to be Beautiful

When I Go

We first met Slow Club 1.5 years ago, when, visiting London at Christmas, we chanced upon a rather special gig at The Social. The bill consisted of Pete and the Pirates, Emmy the Great, Slow Club and a few others (there was definitely one electronic experimental dude whose name we've forgotten). Also in attendance was Lightspeed Champion, singing along with Emmy the Great on a cover of Weezer's Butterfly. Our first SC experience can be summed up thus: We went there mostly to see Emmy and P&tP. We saw the name Slow Club on the list. We thought they would be the new band that would probably suck and during which we would go buy more drinks and use the bathroom. So they came onstage, Rebecca wearing a coat much too big and looking very cold, and started the set by explaining that they had rushed here from another gig and didn't have a chance to bring all their instruments. They would be doing an acoustic set instead. For another band, this could have not turned out too great, but for Slow Club it only made their beautiful harmonies and unpredictable melodies more noticeable. The set wasn't long, they played for something like 30 minutes, but it was enough to put the band on our radar. Now, after about 18 months of amazing yet - let's face it - randomly released songs and a few scattered EPs, Slow Club have finally got round to releasing their debut album. Awarded an 8.0 by NME, "Yeah So"  is no mere compilation of their previously released material. Yes, there are plenty of the great ol' songs their fans have sung along to so many times - songs that provide a great introduction for anyone that hasn't heard of them: Me & You, Because We're Dead, When I Go. But there's also plenty of new material to please us - the devoted followers that have been looking forward to some new tunes - as well. (It Doesn't Have to be Beautiful, and Our Most Brilliant Friends currently ranking as favourites here at LHNA) All in all, the band has managed to put out a fun, catchy, sexy, danceable, sing-along album for pretty much anyone. (except that kid in the back of the gig with the Explotions in the Sky T-shirt, the one that not even Lykke Li can make dance). So unless you're that kid, do yourself the favour of buying it - your feet and hips  and vocal chords will love you for it!

1. "Look at us, we formed a band!" How?

Rebecca: We were at school, i was angsty and Charles was great at playing Jeff Buckley songs. I was drumming in a different band, Charles came and sang with that, and then we started writing songs together and made this band...

 

2.Describe your sound in five words:

Sexy, Smooth, Bootie, Shaking, Beats.

 

3. The band you've been compared to most times is...

The White Flipping Stripes. Just read a comment on our single on itunes begging people who listen to the White Stripes to stop making music, we never even listened to them much! All itunes comments are pretty mean!

 

4. Your favourite song from what you’ve written so far is…

Erm, good one, I think at the moment the new one, because its the new one and that's always exciting for us.

 

5. The craziest thing a fan’s ever done for you is…

bought our album, that was pretty bonkers.

 

6. You like …EASTENDERS

7. You don’t like... missing it

 

8. Your favourite bands at the moment are...The Heebie Jeebies, Dirty Projectors and Casio Kids.

 

9. Your favourite book/writer is... My Take - Gary Barlow.

 

10. (You might be a talented musician and we might hate you for it but it will make us feel better to know that) you suck at... A HELL OF A LOT OF THINGS - doing anything important that needs doing, keeping my emotions in control, texting back, not holding a grudge, jogging.

 

11. What helps you write songs? (Booze? Crappy teen movies? Heartbreaks? Popcorn? Anything goes.) Everything that goes in my eyes and ears, whether that's a conversation I overhear, or a picture I see, or a friend or a goodbye. Oh, and BOOZE. 

 

12. Do you read music blogs? Which ones? Erm, my friend does nothingbutgreenlights which I would always recommend, but since music blogs were given a whole album to be mean about I don't read anything, my mum sends the nice ones over...

 

13. Are you worried about the future of the music industry? Do you think it’s true that unless you’re Coldplay you can’t make money just by playing in a band anymore? Do you guys have day jobs?

I am worried I am going to have to get a real job yes. A delightful person posted something about me saying that I'll be burger kings newest employee in a years time, and wow, that hurt because it is very possible, but I'm not proud, I'll get a job if I need one. But we will carry on writing, recording and touring and hoping to keep our heads above water for now and see what the future brings. But i would try to get a job at Mcdonalds first because I like their chips more. 

 

14. You're in a band because…  I want to make music, I want to be free, and I wanna screw a load of hot chicks.

 

15. You wish everyone would... stop calling us twee.

A big thank you to Rebecca for doing this and another huge thank you to Debbie, who forwarded this to R. and made this wonderful post possible! Now stop staring at the screen and click here.

Last.fm Recommendation: Speedmarket Avenue

Last.fm tags: indie, pop, swedish, twee

Recommended because of: Lacrosse, The Sound of Arrows, Stars in Coma

Just in case you missed it last time, here's the deal. Once a week (approximately) we will listen to Last.fm's personalized recommendations, pick our favourite band from what we hear and feature it on our blog. Simple & fun.

 

Speedmarket Avenue released an album through Elefant Records in 2008, called Way Better Now. Now Elephant Records happens to be one of my favourite labels, and I still managed to miss this. I imagine that a lot of other people did, as well. Here's your chance to catch up.

 

Download: Sirens

Download: Way Better Now

From the depths of my external hard drive: The Metro

Berlin - The Metro (Pleasure Victim, 1982)

 

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on wet, black bough.

 

"In a Station of the Metro", Ezra Pound

Lacrosse dispersing bandages for your hearts

 

Lacrosse's "This New Year Will Be for You and Me" was one of my very favourite albums of 2007. Catchy, sweet, melodic, heartbreakingly touching when it needed to be and overwhelmingly happy in all the right places - the album was the nearest to pop perfection anyone got that year. Their new album, titled "Bandages for the Heart" has all those ingredients, but unfortunately in smaller doses. The band doesn't experiment too much with new sounds and essentially try to replicate what they did on TNYWBFYAM (that's a mouthful!). For some reason, on both discs they seem to combine all their most atractive qualities together in the final song. You hear "What's Wrong With Love"and you have the best of what Lacrosse have to offer on Bandages. But it must be said that "What's Wrong With Love", the last and best song on this album, is nowhere near as good as "This New Year Will Be for You and Me", the last and best track on the previous one. The fact is that  not only the songs are not catchy enough to get in your head and stay there but they also lack the freshness of the older ones. Of course, perhaps it's not really fair to compare the record to my favourite pop record of 2007. Relatively speaking, this is still a solid effort from Lacrosse and a damn good listen for the summer. Enjoy!

 

This New Year Will Be for You and Me 

(This New Year Will Be for You and Me, 2007)

 

I See a Brightness

What's Wrong With Love

(Bandages for the Heart, 2009)

 

*buy their albums here!*

Some places you'll be able to find us during the summer

 Winter Family - Auschwitz

 Pipas - Amsterdam

Wilco - Impossible Germany

Savoir Adore - TransylvanianCandyPatrol

Arms and Sleepers - A Mission to Prague 

I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona

Poni Hoax - Budapest

Last.fm Recommendation: Hutch and Kathy

 

So, this is how it's going to be. Last.fm features a list of personalized recommendations, that change constantly, based on the bands you are listening to. Every week we are going to try out said recommendations and pick our favourite band from the ones recommended to us, which we will then proceed to feature on our blog. This week that band is:

 

(*clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap*)

Hutch and Kathy

 

Last.fm tags: indie, pop, boy-girl duet, portland, the thermals

Recommended because of: The Thermals, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Eux Autres, Dear Nora, Tullycraft
 

Hutch and Kathy are a side project of ...well, Hutch and Kathy from The Thermals and WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS? Possibly because I've been too busy listening to Now We Can See. That'll teach me.

 

Download: In Brilliance

Download: On the Way to Work
 

Illustration by the lovely lovely lovely lovely Marisilla (aka Willy Ollero). You should go check out her wonderful stuff here. Now.

The National - Ashamed of the Story I told

  pic: studiozoe



Another letter from home
I don't know why I even read it
There's one big question
I don't know why I must repeat it

 

The National - Ashamed of the Story I told (Polaris cover)

 

This is taken from the upcoming Mark Mulcahy tribute album, Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy.

 

Tracklist:

 

01 Thom Yorke: "All for the Best"
02 The National: "Ashamed of the Story I Told"
03 Michael Stipe: "Everything’s Coming Undone"
04 David Berkeley: "Love's the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up"
05 Dinosaur Jr.: "The Backyard"
06 Chris Harford and Mr. Ray Neal: "Micon the Icon"
07 Frank Black: "Bill Jocko"
08 Vic Chesnutt: "Little Man"
09 Unbelievable Truth: "Ciao My Shining Star"
10 Butterflies of Love: "I Have Patience"
11 Chris Collingwood of Fountains of Wayne: "Cookie Jar"
12 Frank Turner: "The Quiet One"
13 Rocket From the Tombs: "In Pursuit of Your Happiness"
14 Ben Kweller: "Wake Up Whispering"
15 Josh Rouse: "I Woke Up in the Mayflower"
16 Autumn Defense: "Paradise"
17 Hayden: "Happy Birthday Yesterday"
18 Juliana Hatfield: "We're Not in Charleston Anymore"
19 Mercury Rev: "Sailors and Animals"
20 Elvis Perkins: "She Watches Over Me"
21 Sean Watkins: "A World Away From This One" 

 

It's out in September and I suggest you go buy it. It's for a good cause.

 

** Big thanks to the rather lovely I Am Fuel, You Are Friends for the mp3 **

Brain damage? Or pop brilliance?

Jeffrey Lewis & Laura Marling - Brain Damage (Eminem Cover)

 

Illustration:

Arthur Porto

Múm's new album

 

...is pretty good, though nowhere near as good as, say, Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy. It still makes you feel like you're living in a Hayao Miyazaki movie for a while, though. Which can only mean good things; it can only mean that the magic is not yet lost. 

 

If I Were a Fish

Hullaballabalú

 

And here is a video we once made on a trip to Venice using a Múm song. It's pretty cute, if we're allowed a pat on our own backs. 

 

Songs for a Sweet Summer's Night

 

The fact that you're reading this (unless it's October and you only now came across this post) probably means you're not sitting on a beach, by a lake, or on a river. Like me. 

I'm sitting at a desk. A fan is pointed at me, and the thermometer tells me it's 35C outside. 

 

Here are a few songs to gently transport you away, away, away from where you are to where you want to be.

 

And if you're already there? Stay there!

 

 

Wale - New Soul Feat. Yael Naim

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime

P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love

Playlist for lazy days to come

Walter Ferguson - Going to Bocaas
Warpaint - Billie Holiday
Phoebe Kreutz - All Summer Long
The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
The Smittens - Good Migrations
Coco - さよならから始まる物語
Carton Sonore - Dodo
The Besties - Pirate Song
Blake Miller - This Morning 

 + a little sth for your car...

The Hood Internet - Two Weeks of Hip Hop (Dead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear)

 

☺ Illustrations by dadadreams ☺

From the depths of my external hard drive: Song for a Future Generation

 ☄ The B-52's - Song for a Future Generation ☄

 (Whammy!, 1983)

New Album Preview: The Cribs - We Were Aborted

 

 

The Cribs have just made a track available from their upcoming album Ignore the Ignorant album (Out on September 7th). It'll only be available (from their site) for 24 hours (makes you want it even more, doesn't it?), so be quick. If you're not into the whole Jack Bauer album preview vibe, or are too busy watching the Michael Jackson funeral extravaganza, or this, just download it below.

  

[MP3] The Cribs - We Were Aborted

Festival Preview: Off Festival 2009 (Poland)

Festival season has once again walked into our thoughts, dreams and desires; scantily dressed, heavily perfumed, and looking pretty damn good; walked by our desk wearing nothing but a backstage pass and an inflatable hat, smiled provocatively (Hmpf, Dour!), shaken its ass in our faces (damn you Primavera!), tempted us to part with large sums of cash (leave me alone Reading!), sleep (For the last time, NO! Benicassim!) and sanity (Grrr, Glastonbury!). 

 

And, like sandwiches (sandwiches? is that really the best metaphor you can come up with!? ed.), festivals come in all shapes and sizes. Some tiny, some huge, some just plain weird (but you know we love you anyway, right, Standon Calling?). Line-ups too, vary hugely. Actually choosing from one of these however can prove rather tricky, a bit like standing in front of the counter at Subway (Ah, now I see where that was going. But still, sandwiches? ed.). This year LHNA simply decided to follow the best line-ups...

   

Pitchfork, the website everyone loves to hate and hates to love, recently published its annual Guide to Summer Festivals 2009 article to assist in this choice. LHNA, already planning a journey up, though, and across Europe this summer, and therefore already armed with a vague itinerary and before mentioned line-up criteria, chanced upon the festival we're featuring today: 

  

OFF Festival 2009

 

Held in what for many people may well be considered the middle of nowhere, this little brother of indie festivals has only been around for a few years, yet has already hosted the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, Of Montreal, Electrelane, Clinic, British Sea Power, Menomena and Iron & Wine on its stages. This year's lineup looks even more impressive:

 

The National, Final Fantasy, Spiritualized, El Perro del Mar, The Thermals, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Frightened Rabbit,These New Puritans, Maria Peszek, Marissa Nadler, The Field, Ólafur Arnalds, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, High Places,Handsome Furs, HEALTH, Fucked Up, Mark Kozelek, Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Karl Blau, Wooden Shjips, and many more  !

To be honest, we don't really know much else about it. The website is somewhat 'enigmatic', while everyone writing on its LastFM page is Polish. From what I've seen, it appears to be held in something of a park, and camping is available. For us, the not really knowing what to expect (at all!) is part of the fun. Anyway, here's a map:

 

 Follow the rabbit to Off!

 

Four-day tickets are already sold out, but 2-day tickets are still available and cost only 85 Polish Zloty, which is €19.50 (or $27), i.e. insanely cheap.

  

For flights, I suggest having a look at Ryanair or Easyjet. If you book now you'll probably be able to find something decent.

Off Festival 2009 on Last FM

Official website

Off Festival 2009 playlist on Spotify


-> and for those of you from Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, yes, we have a few songs for your listening pleasure:
  
The National - Mistaken for Strangers
The Thermals - No Culture Icons
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Killers
Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos

LHNA talks to The Woodlands!

Hannah and Samuel, a.k.a The Woodlands released their first, self-titled album recently. As soon as we listened to it we dug out our English dictionaries and started flipping desperately through them, looking for the right words to describe it. They had to be beautiful words, big words, words that hadn't been used before! We kept looking and looking and meanwhile "Summerland" was spreading all over the blogosphere and we thought maybe it was time to stop trying to come up with adjectives and descriptions and just post the songs for everyone to hear. That's approximately when the band e-mailed us promoting their album. Light bulbs appeared above our heads and the idea was born: what better way to find the right words than to ask the band to give them to us themselves? We decided they would be the first band we'd ever ask for an interview. Lucky for us, they said yes.

1. "Look at us, we formed a band!" How?

The Woodlands came to be in somewhat of a roundabout and unintentional way at first. When Samuel and I first met, I had begun playing guitar a couple of years earlier and started writing some songs. Samuel was always musically minded, but didn't actually pick up the guitar until the first year after we got married (about seven years ago). He just decided to teach himself guitar and poured himself into it.

Since we got married we have both worked an assortment of jobs (some 9-5ers, some part-timers) to work hard, but to also keep a flexible schedule for traveling and visiting friends and family. We started playing some of my really old songs together a couple of years after we got married--I would sing and play guitar and Samuel mostly messed around on the harmonica. On a few of my newer songs he just started writing some guitar parts to them and we felt a musical intertwining happening. Meanwhile he was beginning to write lots of his own songs (Of The Isles www.myspace.com/oftheisles), and then we started writing together.

A few years ago we sold, stored or gave away most of our things and we moved down to central america for several goals that we had (to live outside of the US for awhile, so I could learn Spanish--I had always wanted to, and Samuel already spoke it, to volunteer at some orphanages, for an adventure, for a challenge, to write music, to see if we would live abroad permanently, etc.).

We came back to the US after seven months, and realized that we wanted to pursue our music more seriously as The Woodlands. We were absolutely broke coming back, but worked jobs and started writing more songs together and playing some small shows. We set a goal of recording our first album. After moving to Portland a little under two years ago, we began the process of recording at home in the corner of our bedroom with some equipment and a lot of blankets, pillows, sleeping mats and foam pieces built around us. We spent that year recording and writing and developing our songs as we went, and ended up with our album that we self-released a couple of months ago. Now we are working hard and trying to get it out there as much as we can on our own (although we just won a contest from Tinderbox Music that chose us as the winners of their 2009 national college radio campaign contest that will be very helpful), and hoping that we can keep living simply and have some income from our music and the hard work that we have put into it. We have started to get FM radio play in the US, UK, Australia, Spain and also gotten reviews and exposure in those countries as well as Germany, France, Wales, Portugal, Sweden, Canada, Peru, etc.

2. Describe your sound in five words:

Magical. Ethereal. Sincere. Hopeful. Charming. (LHNA: there you go people, the words!)

3. The band you’ve been compared to the most times is…

Feist. Jaymay. Gregory And The Hawk.

4. Your favourite song from what you’ve written so far is…

Hannah: Summerland is my favorite, because after writing it, I had the realization that I really believed in what we were doing. I felt that something inside of me was made to write songs.
Samuel: King And Queen because I like the lyrics that I wrote and Hannah's haunting voice. We were living in Guatemala at the time and we were hanging out in a dim bedroom while the weather stormed outside and it felt like we were castaway lovers in castaway times.

5. The craziest thing a fan’s ever done for you is…

Our fans have been relatively sane up until this point. We were recently playing a show in Idaho and someone said they saw our video on YouTube. This was a surprise to us because we had never made a video. We found out that a kind filmmaker and artist gentleman in Scotland had searched through heaps of songs and chose "Summerland" to make his next project. That was one of the most enjoyable surprises by a fan.

6. You like …

H: kombucha tea, the forest, morning coffee, walking where I go, red wine, Amsterdam, dark chocolate, tiny cafes, tapas, strings of white lights, indoor basil plants, porches
S: cloudy days, strong cheese, cream and tan and grey colors together, letterpress letters, Scotland, dark chocolate, foreign films, autumn, textile patterns, night showers, old machinery, writing poems, olives

7. You don’t like…

H: wearing socks, really cold weather, worrisome thoughts, perfume, wasting food, staying up really late
S: social injustice, raisins, chalk on my hands, heat, clutter

8. Your favourite bands at the moment are...

H: Seabear, Shout Out Louds, Blind Pilot, Noah & The Whale, Youth Group
S: Seabear, Folded Light, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Band Of Horses

9. Your favourite book/writer is...

H: Thomas Merton
S: C.S. Lewis

10. (You might be a talented musician and we might hate you for it but it will make us feel better to know that) you suck at...

H: being on time, technology, doing dishes
S: I have a terrible tendency to leave long and rambling phone messages, fixing car problems

11. What helps you write songs? (Booze? Crappy teen movies? Heartbreaks? Popcorn? Anything goes.)

The need for an outlet to process sorrow. The stimuli and adventure of travel. A desire to see things change. A glass of wine. Insecurity. Confidence. Being immersed in nature. LOVE. Inner silence. Time for contemplation. Awe at the genius of other music and writers.

12. Do you read music blogs? Which ones?

Honestly, no. The main music blogs we have read are when we are searching for music blogs to feature us or when we are reading something that someone has written about our music. Selfish, but that is just what it is at the moment with our schedule and time. We will say that often times the most arresting blogs are those that also have a great artistic visual aesthetic as well. Yours is one of them (and that is sincere, no lip service).

13. You're in a band because…

It just happened. We both love creating and writing and the expression of song. We also love hanging out together, so making music together became a very natural extension of just living our lives together in such close proximity on so many levels.

14. You wish everyone would…

Buy local goods. Buy fair trade goods. Buy our album. Be more nerdy. Laugh at themselves. Choose time, people and experiences over money. Learn to enjoy stillness and solitude.

15. Are you worried about the future of the music industry? Do you think it’s true that unless you’re Coldplay you can’t make money just by playing in a band anymore? Do you guys have day jobs?

Not worried, but trying to figure out how it works and how it is going to work as time progresses. Bands have to be more innovative, self-motivated and creative in their approach to music as a career. We are trying to find out how as well. At this point, we still have to work day jobs waiting tables (Samuel) and as a nanny (Hannah). Our goal, however, is to be able to make a simple living from our music.

Download: Can We Stay
Download: Summerland

Buy the album here!
A big big thank you to Hannah and Samuel for agreeing to answer our questions.

Edit: The Woodlands are still unsigned. Seriously, record labels, what are you waiting for??

Jens Lekman contracts Swine Flu. Is surprisingly calm about it.

As some of you might or might not have already known, Jens Lekman just finished a brief tour of South America, playing his last date in Chile a little over a week ago. He posted the following on his website a few days ago:

  

"I picked home one last souvenir from South America, it's called the H1N1 virus. Wrongfully known as the Swineflue.

I was crossing the Atlantic when things started getting really bad, the fever was hallucinogenic and shaking me like a leaf and I grabbed the sleeve of the Air France steward. "I'm not feeling well, I should see a doctor" I said and the reply came as a brilliant mix of death anxiety and french rudeness: "Uh, yes... Terminal D... go there maybe... when we land". After that the stewards and stewardesses took long detours. A ring of empty seats formed around me. Peoples eyes were kind but determined, they read "Poor you, I really wish you all the best but if you come near me or my kid I will have to stab you with this plastic fork". I got up and went to the bathroom where I fainted.Now I'm in quarantine for ten days. I can see the summer through my window and it's just perfect. Summer is always best through a window."

 

If it were me I'd probably be balled up in a corner, clutching a pillow, a rosary and a pack of pain killers by now, screaming about how "I'm going to die!!!", but Jens, well, he's clearly a cool(er) cookie.

 

So Jens, consider our hats removed and tipped gently in your direction (north). Enjoy your summer from that window and get well soon!

 

Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves (7-inch Version)