Spiral Stairs album due in October

Spiral Stairs aka Scott Kannberg of Pavement fame is due to release his first solo album under the Spiral Stairs name. Kannberg has released two albums as the Preston School of Industry in the years following the Pavement split. The new album is called ‘the Reel Feel’ and will be released on Domino in Europe and Matador in the States on the 19th / 20th of October respectively. Matador reveals that “Spiral returned to Seattle rejuvenated at the end of ‘08, and commenced recording with a collection of pals including members of PSOI, the Posies, guitarist Ian Moore, Gersey, and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew.” This should be interesting.

Matador has kindly leaked a track off the album called ‘Maltese Terrier’ (mp3).

Dinosaur Jr. – Over it

This is brilliant.

Dinosaur Jr‘s new album ‘Farm’ is out now on Jagjaguwar.

the Analogue Hour 24/6/09

Here’s the playlist for last week’s show which repeated at noon today. I’ve been waiting for the right time to play a track by Moondog and this show seemed perfect as I always get a sense of Moondog when listening to some Oneida tracks.

The Analogue Hour
7-8pm on 2XM (listen on DAB or online)
Wednesday, 24/5/2009

Psychic City
YACHT
See Mystery Lights

15 to 20
The Phenomenal Handclap Band
The Phenomenal Handclap Band

—-

The Misfit
Oneida
Happy New Year

Down Is Up
Moondog
The Viking Of Sixth Avenue

Bobbie Joe Wilson
Yppah
They Know What Ghost Know

—-

I Start To Run
White Denim
Fits

Over It
Dinosaur Jr.
Farm

—-

Milk Man
Deerhoof
Milk Man

Silver Moons
Sunset Rubdown
Dragonslayer

—-

Black & Blue
Miike Snow
Miike Snow

Clark Gable
The Postal Service
Give Up

—-

Kid gloves
Angkorwat

Twin Of Myself
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Eating Us

—-

Autumn Beds
Modest Mouse

October (Jackson C. Frank cover)
Patrick Kelleher

Joe And Will Ask?

Joe And Will Ask? have been making noise across clubland with their melodic yet heavy techno, while at the same time baffling bloggers and writers with their typographically nonsensical name. I recently spoke to them as they found themselves booked between a series of dubstep wizards at Beats of Rage in Preston’s Coda. “It was basically anthem bashing,” said Will. “It was kind of an introduction to techno to a dubstep night.” They were a little uneasy following a DJ playing 140bpm at midnight, so they played harder and faster than usual. “We played at 130bpm which is not normal for us,” said Joe, who dropped a stripped down version of Angello, Ingrosso, Axwell & Laidback Luke’s Leave The World Behind. “I love the Swedish House Mafia attitude to music, fuck it we’ll do what we want, if people think it’s cheesy they can piss off or whatever, but the vocal is too much, so I just scrapped it and made some kind of rearrangement of it. I’m kind of obsessed with that big piano chord thing.”

This euphoric big room house isn’t quite what they’re known for, but that’s not to say they won’t find themselves next to Angello and friends on the next Clubber’s Guide CD. Finding themselves hassled by Ministry of Sound to make something radio-friendly, Joe and Will hooked up with Becky Jones, also known as Saint Saviour of The RGBs. “She’s an awesome dance music writer, she does it in a kind of cool, edgy way, it’s not bland or boring, like let’s just stick a blonde babe singing something about the weekend.” That’s not to say the boys are stepping outside the deep and trippy techno that’s made their name. They’ve also been working on a track with Micachu, something Joe describes as the polar opposite of what they’ve done with Saint Saviour. “The instrumental I gave [Mica], it’s by a long way the most deep thing we’ve ever done, it’s like techno before techno became this kind of minimally, skippy, melodic thing, it’s techno techno. I can imagine someone like Adam Beyer playing it.”

Joe, who got his first set of decks at the age of 16, was already releasing electronica under his own name on the Sound Artillery label when he met Will, who grew up on a diet of Godskitchen and Sundissential. Out of boredom they started DJing together two years ago, and already they’re set to play Ibiza alongside 2manydjs, and Aeroplane. “Neither of us have ever been before,” says Joe. “When we were told we’re playing Ibiza we were like yeah! And when we were told it’s Ibiza Rocks we were like, oh. Cause we’re not really into the whole rock and dance mix.” Not that they are ungrateful by any means: Joe appreciates the stark contrast between the superstar resident DJs of the white island and the tireless blaggers who spend seasons just trying to get one gig. “For us it’s a real promising sign.” It all came about after a remix for Eskimo Twins, an act on the Wax:On label. The Leeds-based outfit were roped in to promote Reclaim The Dancefloor, a weekly night at Eden, and they were so impressed with what Joe and Will did for Eskimo Twins that they invited them along. Following a spate of unofficial remixes for the likes of Marc Houle and Ellen Allien & Apparat, as well as releases on Kitsuné and Gulp Communications, they’ve been approached by acts as diverse as The Subs and Kris Menace. “It’s quite nice to be asked to remix Kris Menace, he’s a fucking legend,” says Will.

Inspired by the current crop of forward thinking techno producers like Popof and Style of Eye, the Joe And Will Ask? signature is a characteristic cheekiness that shines through their melodies and sounds. “I’d like to think it nods to Orbital, people like that, you know the quirkiness, slightly kind of odd and funny,” says Joe, while Will tells of a tribute to their favourite person in the world: “We named one song after our friend Chris, who’s a bit weird, it’s kind of a weird glitchy song, and he kind of has a twitch, so we named it after him.”

They are excited about playing Dublin for the first time, as they headline Transmission at The Button Factory next week. Unlike Will, who spends time in Kilcock every year, Joe has never crossed the Irish Sea so is finally making up for lost time. “It’s actually really embarrassing, I’ve lived in England my whole life and I’ve never been to Ireland or Scotland.” Unlike their techno DJ set in Preston, they will be bringing their live show to The Button Factory, a venue which will no doubt suit their in your face live performance. “I think to do live it has to be amazing or not at all, to showcase your music, throw it everyone else’s face, whether they want it or not, you need an amazing sound system. We’ve got so many songs now we could probably play for two hours. But live we want to leave people wanting more, leave people wanting to see us again.”

And as for their name? “It was meant to be a joke,” says Will. “I think it’s cool cause it’s memorable, and nothing is similar to it. It’s not like a cool word.” Joe meanwhile accepts that there’s nothing they could pick that could top it. “We’re the most cynical, self-judging people in the world, so if we were to ever come up with a dramatic kind of name, we’d just say only a dickhead would have that.”

Joe And Will Ask? play Transmission at The Button Factory, Dublin, on June 13

“The Girl And The Robot” gets a video

The Girl And The Robot is without a doubt one of the stand-out tracks on Röyksopp’s latest LP Junior; it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that this will be their next single, available June 15th across the usual plethora of formats.

I have to admit, as someone that typically listens to music over lyrics (frequently to the point of not even remotely knowing what a song is about), I find that something about Robyn’s voice makes me aware of every word she sings, and this track is no different. It’s a fantastically fun and innocuous track about the trials and tribulations of being a 20-something Swedish pop star in love with a robot, with fake choral sounds and whirling synths layered over constant, compressed drums that remind me just a little of Boys Noize, only tamer.

Their video for the track has been floating around on Youtube for a while but it only came to my attention earlier today via Mixmag. It keeps the robot theme alive and well, with Robyn spending her days in a sort of The Jetsons-esque boudoir, idly watching TV, taking pregnancy tests and needlessly spilling drinks onto the floor while waiting for her horticulturalist robotic bf to come home from whatever futuristic synthetic farm he works in. Also watch out for the Röyksopp boys in the robot salesroom.