We’ve been distracting ourselves with this. Check it out!

The Magazine is almost done, and looking awesome too. While you wait, check out this awesome lipsynch from the guys at Connected Ventures, where you wish you worked.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Safety in Stevens

There’s a house party on, and you find yourself there, chatting away to someone
of the opposite sex. There’s music on in the background, your six for seven
beer is going warm and you can’t see your mates anywhere. Still, like I said,
you’re chatting to someone of the opposite sex, so, it’s not all bad. Then the
question comes. It’s fairly standard, ‘Are you a total fucking goon or are you
human?’ but it’s phrased as “So, what music do you like?”

You take a second, and a wee sip of the now mostly saliva beer, and answer,
“Sufjan Stevens”, swallowing down hard your actual taste in Israeli trance, or
Abba, or Christy Moore. Stevens is such an easy answer, for many reasons. He’s
not impossibly obscure, but is hardly mainstream. He’s better than most of his
contemporaries and his music is full of hope, and love and innocence. He shows
that you are caring and socially minded. He is also nearly impossibly good.
Americana, or whatever the buzz word for this type of music: The folk revival in
indie music, has had a big ‘aul impact recently, with several mainstream acts
dipping their oars into the pool. Bruce “the boss” Springsteen released the
Seeger Sessions a while back there (by the by, Seeger himself is not dead, as
yet). Black Rebel Motorcycle Club did the excellent Howl. And let’s not forget
the brilliant if impossibly stretched out American Recordings from Johnny Cash, as
a true American hero dipped into the mainstream to gather gems (although there
should only have been one, or two at the most, released - much too much filler).
The acts quickest identified with this roots and folk style of music are
Devendra Banhart, Mr Stevens and several borderline country singers like
Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams. Older acts, which make this current spike a
revival, rather than an original thing, include Cosby, Still, Nash and Young,
Dylan and perhaps even Simon and Garfunkel. Woody Guthrie and the old
bluesmen and story tellers are the true granddaddies of the genre.

There are some clear hallmarks to it; acoustic guitars are usually there,
stripped back recording methods which give the records a timelessness; and
perhaps mostly importantly a story. The songs have a purpose, they
capture a moment and a feeling of alienation and brutality, of naivety and hope,
and a tremendous hope for the future, but under it all, an appreciation of a
coming tidal wave, of the transience of life and property.

As with the short story, as a formal prose form, so the singer songwriter seems
most at home in the vast open spaces of America. That isn’t to say that only
the Americans do this well. Nick Cave has a mean line in it, with thick and
often lyrically vile songs stomping brutally across the red dust of the
outback. Also in contention is the twirling carnival of noise that Duke Special throws out, although he is getting dangerously close to pop.

But back to Mr Stevens, Sufjan if you will. His best known song ‘Chicago’, is
used in an ad or something, and so people recognise it when you play it, and
comes from the excellent ‘(Come on and feel the) Illinois’ LP. This, along
with ‘Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lake State’, are the start of his planned
fifty concept albums, each one based upon an American state, although he has
waived between joking and sincerity when questioned about it. His sound is a
layering of lo-fi instruments, the banjo to the fore and innovative percussion.
Multiple voices and a willingness to use brass also feature. Lyrical portraits
of people and places and much spirituality fill in the picture.

But perhaps the element that marks Sufjan out so clearly above others
ploughing the same furrow, is his sheer listenablitiy; the feeling of
moreishness, at the end of an album. You’ve gone a journey and seen and met
people, you’ve felt the weather splashing down around you, and you’ve a little
sunburn on your forehead, but you want to go back outside again anyway. You’ve
travelled a little way in a believers boots, seen the vast, endless lakes and
flowers, met the murders and the murdered and unemployed and factories, but
recognise there is more, and want to set out now.

Like the photography of Shelby Lee Adams, William Christenberry and Joel
Sternfeld, Stevens, Banhart and the rest show us glimpses not of America, but
of a particular idea of America. They are no more than snap shots: one mans
view, but in that they have the seeds of some outstanding music.

Sample Art

 

One of the wonderful pieces of art illustrating Brens interview with Final Fantasy, by Sarah Comerford.

Putting it all together

It’s all go here at Analogue central. We’re beginning to piece together the layout for issue 1, due October 1st. We’re listening to Kings of Leon, thedo, and molesting Quark express. We’ll be in the office till late tonight, and back in again all next week. If you’d like to show your support or throw in any mad suggestions, leave us a comment or fire us off an email.

Cheers!

Gareth & Bren

‘Playful Sex’ with Asobi Seksu

I know it’s a bit early to start raving about a band that’s playing in November but sleepily listening to Asobi Seksu this morning on the bus into work gave me some sort of sense of urgency to tell more people about this great bronx four-piece. Their name means ’playful sex’ in colloquial Japanese, that’s enough to catch my attention… 

Read more

Analogue Blogs…

Gareth has gotten the ball rolling on the Analogue Blog so I thought I’d try keep some sort of momentum going. I’m fairly new to the world of blogging but I thought I might as well give it a go and see what all the fuss is about. Hopefully I’ll rope a few more of Analogue’s writers into this and make it a little more exciting for everyone. Read more

HWCH Headliners 2007

This year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival will be headlined by The Jimmy Cake, The Concretes and Jape. The festival now in it’s fifth year will take place on the 28-30th of September in the Tripod complex showcasing the best of homegrown talent.

A total of 15 Scandinavian bands, dubbed “the Scandinavian invasion” will bring an international flavour to what has primarily been an event to promote independent Irish music.

If you do head along be sure to catch You’re Only Massive, Ten Past Seven, Fight Like Apes and of course the Jimmy Cake.

Bands of MySpace

While it undoubtedly sucks worse than a two dollar Mexican love lady as a social network, MySpace is still an excellent place to find and share new music. As one of the first social networks to create dedicated musician profiles, the simplicity of creating an account, together with the option to allow songs to be streamed rather than downloaded, and the social norm of musical availability, have meant that for many artists, MySpace is the one place online they feel comfortable making their music available for free. From enormous acts to tiny one man garage bands, you’ll find everyone who’s anyone on the network. I’ve thrown together a sampler of some interesting acts I’ve come across recently, via the magical ugly streaming corporate browser crasher that is Rupert Murdock’s MySpace Music. Read more

Coming Soon!

Check back soon for a regularly updated blog from some of Analogue’s top writers.

Buck 65, not a fan of Piracy

Analogue caught up with hip hop legend Rich Terfry aka Buck 65, just before his July 5th Gig at the Hub.

A: So how many times have you visited Ireland at this stage?

B: It’s been quite a few times and in fact in the last few years I’ve been coming an average of two or three times a year. I don’t even remember when my first visit here was. I’ve been coming here fairly regularly at least for the last five years or so. Interestingly one key memorable show that I did here, memorable for a lot of reasons, some good, some bad to be perfectly honest with you, was the Trinity Ball a few years ago with ‘The Rapture’, ‘Dizzee Rascal’, ‘Electrelane’, and myself, I played with myself that night. And, that was a strange, strange, strange night. Read more

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