Brendan Canning - Something For All of Us

After Broken Social Scene’s initial tryptic carried the collective Toronto scene to international acclaim, the Kevin Drew / Brendan Canning centred alt-pop collective had the wit, canny and sheer cynicism to launch a series of ‘Broken Social Scene Presents:’ records - beginning with Kevin Drew’s ‘Spirit If’, a riotously experimental indie rock record, twinkling with wide eyed valiance - and near enough as collaborative as the original Broken Social Scene project. The second BSSP record has now hit. ‘Something For All Of Us…’ provides a platform for Drew’s cofounder, Brendan Canning. More conventional, if no less energetic than Drew’s début, SFAOU spans the gamut from uptempo cinematic instrumentals (’All the Best Wooden Toys Come From Germany’), to dreamy shoegaze on ‘Been at it So Long’ & ‘Chameleon’, to grittily melodic alt folk of the Jeff Buckley school (’Snowballs and Icicles’, ‘Possible Grenade’). Less successfully are the weak Lisa Lobsinger driven pop song ‘Antique Bull’, and the blandly funky ‘Love is New’. Overall, Cannings voice is warm, and his guitar and horn lines catchy, but there’s no snare driven pop anthem to compare with Drew’s ‘Safety Bricks’. None the less, this fuzzy, likeable record should hit the spot for salivating BSS fans.?

Dublin Duck Dispensary - Luanqibazao

[youtube:http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=_-82Ewr9u5M]

The latest album from savage one man lo-fi outfit ‘Dublin Duck Dispensary‘ is out today for free, from the bands netlabel Rack and Ruin. The band recently made their live debut with an ultra brief but fantastic set at the poorly organised Hard Working Class Heroes festival. The album is called Luanqibazao (pronounced Loo - an - zi - ba - zow), from a Chinese word meaning ‘a complete mess’. Haven’t had a chance to listen to the rest of the LP yet, but the first ’single’, (i.e.: the first track with a video) is embedded above. Look out for an interview with DDD in the next issue of Analogue.

Download Luanqibazao.

Fight Like Apes and The Mystery of The Golden Medallion

I vacuum the CD into iTunes with trepidation. I’m about to review the début album from the most feted Irish live act since Whipping Boy. Fight Like Apes make energetic, clever, sexy music - pop punk in the best possible sense. Live, the band are stunningly entertaining, shooting about the stage drenched in sweat, MayKay screaming and flipping her banshee mane, Pockets headbangin’ in a karate headband like he’s about to loaf his synth in two. After released critically two acclaimed EP’s - ‘How Am I Suppose To Kill You If You Have All the Guns’, ‘David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Whos Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch’, the band are set to release their first feature length record at the end of the month. So what does it sound like?

Straight off the bat, vocals are noticeably cleaner, ‘Jake Summers’ is still a great song, now faster and sounding more like early 90’s “crunch sticky indie pop” (i.e.: Nerdy Girl) than a synthy Hole - eroding the destination between the intro and the ‘that’s not nice what you did to me’ interlude and replacing MayKay’s wonderfully angry ‘fuuuuuck’ with a weaker group chant. ‘Lend Me Your Face’ has been tinkered with, varying the synth tones that run over the intro, it’s more rounded but loses some of it’s furious smirk. ‘Battle Stations’ features sharper guitar and more developed farty synths, but the softer vocals may divide fans, especially in the synth-horn section. ‘Do you Karate?’ sounds less flat and fuzzy overall especially on the ’shit shit shit shit bang bang’ shouty bit ™.

Of the new tracks ‘Digifucker’, a simple bass heavy track built around almost squeaky chiptuneque synth, horns and scuzzy guitar, is pretty. ‘I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me’, an imaginary exchange of letters between the band and a former manager, easily lives up to the bands older material, complete with trademark hilarious shouty bits ‘Suplex, suplex, suplex backbreaker’ and ‘You’re So Fired’. It could be the best track on the album. ‘Lumpy Dough’ is a great ‘You Are the Hat ‘ style, lush dreamy track, reminiscent of Moon Safari era Air minus the vocoder. ‘You Are the Hat ‘ incidentally makes an appearance on the albums vinyl release. ‘Something Global’ - already released as the albums début single, is poppy with a catchy ironic ‘gimme my hook’ hook. ‘Recyclable Ass’, despite its awesome chiptuny intro, and ‘Tie me up with Jackets’ are fun but less memorable. ‘Knucklehead’, a great Something Global b-side (available on the bands MySpace), didn’t make the cut. All the new tracks share MayKay’s trademark acerbic nonsense lyrics, bitchy-silly catch phrases that somehow never quite sound trivial.

Interesting, the album seems to have been mixed for headphones rather than speakers, an odd choice for a grungy act. Tracks like the final cut ‘Snore Bore Whore’, work far better on a good pair of cans (sic).
The cover, featuring artwork by Analogue photographer Loreana Rushe (which I’m told folds out into a huge poster for you ass), is a throwback to the bands first single (’David Carradine..’) featuring a skeletal figure carrying, you’ve guessed it, a golden medallion.

Fight Like Apes may have stumbled, albeit it only slightly, into the over clean production trap that lies in wait for Irish acts (what’s so wrong with lo-fi?), but the fresh tracks on this album are strong enough that those worried about FLapes future should have few concerns.

The new album will be available to stream from midnight tonight (Thursday 18th September) on Entertainment.ie. Fight like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion is available in shops and online from September 26th for a very reasonable €14.99.

Music at the Dublin Fringe

Dublin’s fringe festival has rolled round again, and a variety of musicians are appearing in the Spiegeltent, which has been hoisted in Iveagh Gardens. Now while this is a disgraceful appropriation of public resources for the private use of privileged cunts - a harbinger of US style neoliberal fuck the commonmanism (kind of like the LUAS) - there are some interesting gigs available, including..

Cathy Davey - Monday 9.30pm, €20

The Fall - Tuesday 9.30, €29.50
(Appropriately circus like post punk legends)

Duke Special - Wednesday 9.30pm, €20

An Introduction to Dubstep - Friday 9.30pm, €20
Feat Skream, Plastician & Safety Boy
(Recommended for hipster wannabes)

Sugarhill Gang - Sunday (14th), €25
(Invented hiphop)

Tickets are available from the Dublin Fringe Festival website, which has links to music from all the acts listed here. There’s other shit on there too.

Calexico

Interviews with high plains drifters Calexico are ten a penny at the moment, ahead of their European tour and the release of their sixth studio album. You can find Irish inquisitions of the band on Drop-d, Entertainment.ie and Connected, so what’s the point of reading another?

I spoke to lead singer Joey Burns on the 21st of August, and have lacklusterly avoided posting said interview till now. To make up for my tardiness, and out of sheer unremitting hatred of transcription, I’m going to post the whole (only very slightly) unedited interview, to give you lovely folks an unprecedented glimpse into the sycophantic journalistic machine that is Analogue.

The schoolgirlish laughter you hear from me is sheer relief. Phone interviews are horrible. No eye contact, to chance to measure body language or note that the poor sucker you’re on to is bleary eyed and obviously in the fiery depths of a heroin mental. Luckily Joey Burns turned out to be a diamond bloke. In our twenty minute chat you can hear him discuss his musical influences, the history of the L.A music scene, the bands current and past collaborations, their upcoming tour and their latin flavoured new album ‘Carried to Dust’. So slip on a pair of headphones, drop your butt on the back porch, gaze out over the great evening gilded desert, and enjoy this chilled out interview.

Calexico Interview (16.1megs)

State fails to find a paying market

Ireland’s other new national music magazine has announced it is to take a months break from active production, relaunching as a freesheet. Before I get to an analysis of the change, I’d like to point out a little something from States’s press release (reprinted in full below), which sticks in my craw.

The phrase is “It is set to become the first Quality National Music Monthly available completely free of charge!”. Lets parse that shall we, ‘first’ means original or only, ‘quality’ as in indicative of worth or high value, ‘national’ as in nationwide, ‘music’ as in covering or concerned with music and ‘monthly’, as in printed on a monthly basis. Four out of these five words combine into a factual claim, easily falsifiable. The fifth, the adjective ‘quality’ changes the meaning of the sentence from a statement of fact to one of opinion. Clearly State is not the ‘first national music monthly available completely free of charge’ (however dubiously you choose to capitalise it), that’s an empirically verifiable fact. Connected was (to the best of our knowledge) the first free magazine, focused on music, available throughout the Republic of Ireland. Analogue’s recent relaunch as a nationwide magazine makes it the second. The addition of the term ‘quality’ has a clear implication, and that is that neither Analogue nor Connected are quality pieces of work. The comment area below this article would be the ideal venue for an apology.

On to State’s future as a new national music freesheet. This isn’t as much of a change to the Irish market as it at first appears. The country plays host to a wide variety of regional and national advertising supported publications, many of which include music coverage. Whether magazine readership is a zero sum game, or whether by contrast the Irish audience has room to grow, is a question open to debate. The fact is that State, which already included advertising, is merely entering more fully into an increasingly competitive market for advertising supported music and culture publications - titles including ‘GCN’, ‘AU’, and ‘Totally Dublin’; rather than representing a novel direct threat to Analogue, Connected - or any other magazine.

Personally I hope State succeeds, both in finding an audience for it’s new format, and in continuing to pay its writers. As a paying market for writing about music it provides both an avenue for the development of new journalistic careers, and for readers an alternative to other music publications on the market, from ‘Hotpress‘ to ‘The Ticket‘. As a website, playing host to some of the most interesting music writers in the country (and now, likely, as Analogue has always done, reproducing for free the content of it’s printed cousin) State.ie provides another essential destination for Irish music fans; and enhanced community features can only add to that. The magazine is not to my personal taste, but that’s what great about magazines - no matter what your preference there’s likely one to suit, whether it be in the form of a printed publication, a web based outfit, or a PDF mag. As a comment on the state (no pun intended) of the for pay magazine, the change is telling. Combined with the closure of left wing political outlet ‘The Village’ (a move some of that magazine’s writers found out about only through a report in the Irish times), State’s going free questions the viability of paid niche magazines in the contemporary Irish market place. It’s one gradual step in a wider cultural change - people are less willing than ever to pay for things they can get (legally or otherwise) for free.

PRESS RELEASE

State Magazine
Ireland’s Quality National Monthly Is Free!

After a month of rumours and speculation State Magazine is ready to announce its plans for the future. It is set to become the first Quality National Music Monthly available completely free of charge!

After only 6 issues the monthly magazine has already established its credentials as a vibrant and incisive publication with attention to detail, a design that is second to none and impeccable production values. In addition its sister website (www.state.ie) has proved itself constantly on top of its game with breaking news, interviews and reviews that keep it bang up to the moment and ahead of the pack.

With their publication now a recognised brand the minds behind State Magazine are determined to move things forwards, onwards and upwards.

Their first step will be the launch of a newly strengthened and emboldened website hosted at their usual address.

Meanwhile the published magazine will take a one-month break to restructure its production and distribution returning with a November issue at the beginning of October which will be distributed nationally and available free of charge!

“We have produced 6 issues the old fashioned way,” explains publisher Roger Woolman, “and we feel it’s time to make a change and communicate more directly with our current readers as well as making our journalism and photography available to an even wider audience.

“We will still be producing a magazine of the highest quality filled with impeccable journalism, exclusive photography and top-end design but we don’t want to restrict ourselves and our readers by relying on traditional methods of distribution and sales, so we’re going to try something new: a top quality music magazine for free!”

The magazine will initially be instantly available in Ireland’s main towns and cities but will also be available by post for no more than the real price of postage and packing to anyone who subscribes. And in an unprecedented move this subscription service will be available right around the world!

“The fact that our magazine is Irish doesn’t mean that only people living in Ireland want to read it,” Woolman commented. “Our readership will be as big and broad as we allow it to be and we want it to be worldwide!”

Note: This article (like all Analogue articles) represents only the opinions of its writer.

DJ for your friends with Blip.fm

New music sharing service Blip.fm bills itself as Twitter for music. Really it’s not. Like twitter it allows brief posts to be quickly shared between friends. Unlike twitter the service doesn’t provide for posting (or receiving posts) via SMS. That’s sort of immaterial, because what Blip does do is freaking awesome. Once you’ve created an account on the service, you carry out a search for the artist or song of your choice (so far almost everything I’ve looked for has been found - and you can upload your own music if a track’s missing), hit ‘blip’, add a brief text message and click ‘ok’. Instantly, not only are you listening to the song you’ve chosen, but you’re also acting as a time shifted DJ for anyone who adds you as a friend. Sure the service will likely face the chop, from a terrified, backward and thankfully dying music industry - like the much loved muxtape, but right now it acts as the slickest, fastest and most fun way ever to be an online DJ. Most of the time you don’t have to upload anything - you can play music for your friends anywhere in the world with a wee search, a little comment and a click.

But that’s not all folks, as blip.fm also connects with your last.fm account - allowing you to share all the songs you scrobble with a click. The site will also syndicate your played songs on twitter and a variety of other services should you choose to do so (not recommended).

Join Blip.fm now.

The Composer Seduced into Carpentry

Outsider composer Harry Partch abandoned a university musical education, lived as a hobo for ten years in depression era America, and wrote an opera based on Yeat’s translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. At an early age Partch forsook the ‘dead, white, middle class musical tradition’ and the Western system of musical notation; developing new scales (including a 43 tone scale, with 43 notes per octave rather than 12!), inventing new methods of musical transcription, and constructing instruments which could ‘capture the melodic contours of dramatic speech’.

Above is a youtube playlist featuring a fascinating BBC documentary on the composers life, music and influence. To quote the documentary ‘[Barstow] created an obscure, strange, difficult but always fascinating musical universe in an attempt to exist apart from the modern world’. Radicalised by his homosexuality, Partch remained apart for much of his life from even the radical fringes of the classical establishment, obsessively studying the musical notation and instrumentation of ancient civilisations, building his instruments and composing pieces to express their radical capacities.

Partch’s influence can be seen today in a variety of contemporary experimental composers, in radical outsider musicians like Jandek who record and perform using microtonal tunings, and in the continued construction of custom instrumentation to achieve previously impossible ranges of sound. You can read more about Partch and one of his most accessible works, ‘Barstow‘ appropriately enough on another anablog - this one written by the Analog Ensemble. You can also hear clips of a variety of versions of Barstow, on Corporeal.com.

8 Easy Pieces

The pitched fork has pronged another prize with the fantastic documentary, Reformat the Planet on the emerging Chiptune scene. Chiptune (as distinct from 8bit music per say) has been around for about a decade, and is finally garnering some critical acclaim. Not content with inventing punk music, Malcolm McLaren hopped on the bandwagon early, writing an hilarious piece for Wired in 2003 claiming the birth of a new scene, ‘Chipmusic’. In the article McLaren is escorted my mysterious French underground electronic musicians to a dingy factory where credibility and curry powder mix in malodorous clouds, and odd young hips with blackened teeth play unironic retro-future music on outdated consoles and computers. Since those halcyon days chiptune has conspicuously failed to set the world alight - though it has had an ‘influence’ on mainstream hiphop and indie acts, on underground scenes like nerdcore and laterly on art and fashion [1] [2]; ultimately achieving the honour of being featured in the latest issue of Analogue. Reformat the Planet is only available for four more days, so check it out!

Update: For an Irish take on 8bit, check out the hyperkinetic 0010100, who mercifully avoid the europop chinz of much euro chiptune.

Update 2: If you’re in the UK or can get your clogs on and hop on a ferry, there’s a Chiptune Alliance tour on right now in Scotland and England, featuring some of the artists featured in Reformat the Planet including Anamanaguchi, Sabrepulse, and Random.

Parenthetical girls - Entanglements??

Continuing the baroque revival with lush orchestral arrangements, perverse lyrics and a hodgepodge of eclectic instrumentation - Parenthetical Girls third LP ‘Entanglements’, ripe with snatches of verse and vocal phrasing referencing pop’s credibly melodic lunatic fringe (from Kate Bush to the Smiths), is an intricate if occasionally overloaded enterprise. It’s as though someone sat frontman Zac Pennington down and told him he had one final stab at an album, and in terror he threw a career full of instrumental experimentation behind his Connor Oberst meets Travis Morrison falsetto. Over the top production is simultaneously ‘Entanglements’ greatest strength and weakness. At its best, as on the dreamy pedorastic ballad ‘Avenue of Trees’, or the multiplicitously referential ‘Song for Ellie Greenwich’, or on Penningston’s wonderful reimagining of Michel Legrand chamberpop staple ‘Windmills of Your Mind’; ‘Entanglements’ is a candy coloured clown - tumbling through conceptually driven lyrics and multigenre medleys with knowing delight. But where it falls down, as on the Dresden Dolls style dirge ‘Abandoning’, or the Fiona Appleishly overwritten ‘Gut Symmetries’, the album can seem top heavy and cloying in a way that eschews the unpretentious evocativeness of the best of its precursors. That said, ‘Entanglements’ is an intriguingly dense listen, highly recommended for the Jon Brion / Andrew Bird retinue, and fans of perverse, delicious, instrumental pop everywhere.

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