SnC 245 – 10 November 2010

Podcast: Play in new window

Some wonderful music from around the world, news of some gigs that you might just want to get to and the announcement of Adnams Artist of the Month for October 
I was in Southwold yesterday. The sea was heaping up on the beach and stained brown from all the sand and silt the high winds had caused it to stir up from the seabed. The sandwich and a pint a The Lord Nelson were a great comfort on a cold, wet and blustery day. 🙂
 
Pen 15 – Unsolved Mysteries (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
Unsolved Mysteries began in 2004 as the solo musical project of Jon Lynn and has since evolved to a full collaboration with producer Colin Alexander.  Drawing from inspirations as diverse as Vangelis and Three Six Mafia, New Order and Keith Sweat; it is everything weird that you barely recall from childhood memories. 
www.myspace.com/unsolvedmysteries
 
Tin Pan (played last week) have a show coming up on 11/11/2010 at 05:00 PM at the 34th Street – Herald Square subway station above the  N/R/Q trains. Reverbnation has them down as headlining – lovely! Details at www.reverbnation.com/show/3384599
BTW, the Twitter engine has it that Jesse and Clifton from the band are “working on vocal tracks.  Album is getting closer and closer to being done, yall!!! ” This con only be good news.
Tin Pan Band will be done by 7 so you’ll have an hour to high tail it to The Living Room on Ludlow Street for a show with our good friend Marc Farre. Details of Marc’s show at www.reverbnation.com/show/3182341
 
Harry – Marc Farre (Piermont, NY, USA)
Singer/songwriter Marc Farre was born in France, but immigrated to the U.S., where he managed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company during the 1980s and worked with avant-garde classical composer John Cage. 
He composed a dozen scores for modern dance in the ’80s and ’90s. His work with Cage brought him into contact with MODE, a classical record label, which signed him to its AVANT imprint (notwithstanding his desire to record his own pop/rock songs) and released his debut EP, Margaret Maybe, in 1994. The disc gained little notice, however, and Farre sought his release from the label, going on to issue his subsequent recordings himself on his own All Weather label. The first of these was his debut full-length album, Unsafe Songs, released in 1998. Man on the Sun followed in September 2000. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he released a benefit single, “Prayer Flags,” to radio only. In 2003, he scored the documentary film He Who Is Blessed for public television. Harry is taken from his third full-length CD, Secret Symphony, was released on June 23, 2008.
The best news is that a new release is imminent. 

Marc Farre

Home page of Marc Farre, an alternative artist from Sebastopol, CA. Marc Farre is an indie-folk artist known for his cinematic, highly poetic art-pop songs. His voice is deep, intimate, intense. Though he is based in Northern California, Marc Farre’s Fren

www.myspace.com/marcfarre
 
Japanese – The Art of Shooting (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
The Art Of Shooting is 3 folks from DC and one from Detroit who all live in Brooklyn and love one another very much. Their sound comes directly from Kelly’s pelvis and inability to play by ear, making for a unique sound.
They are often compared to Feist meeting Explsions in the Sky, the Pretenders, and an early Smashing Pumpkins and, in their time, have played every imaginable venue Manhattan and Brooklyn have to offer.
Nov 10 The Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA
Nov 11 TBA Seattle, WA
Nov 12 Le Voyeur Olympia, Wa
Nov 13 Full Tilt Ice Cream Seattle, WA
www.myspace.com/theartofshooting
 
Mace Spray – The Jezzabels (Sydney, Australia)
One of the frustrations of CMJ was the artists that I didn’t get to see, with around 50 shows on at any one time, it just isn’t possible to see every you want to. The Jezabels are one such band. 
Formed at university in Sydney in 2007, their careers seem to have really taken off in the past 12 months. 
Since releasing their second EP, She’s So Hard, in November 2009, the four-piece have toured the country supporting Tegan & Sara, Katie Noonan and Josh Pyke, and as headliners in their own right (selling out shows nationally in the process). They’ve watched Hurt Me, the lead single from She’s So Hard, receive heavy rotation on radio in Australia and abroad, a feat also achieved by its follow-up, Easy To Love. Fittingly, The Jezabels have seen their fanbase grow every step of the way.
There have been lessons learned along the way. The constant touring has, says 24-year-old keyboardist Heather Shannon, made the band – completed by guitarist Sam Lockwood (24) and drummer Nik Kaloper (25) – much tighter. Sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara, they learned how to work the biggest rooms of their career. Best of all, the long hours travelling betweens gigs and the routine of performing every night has solidified the band’s understanding of what it is that makes them tick. 
The Jezabels’ new EP, Dark Storm is the third and final release in a trilogy of EPs that began with 2009’s The Man Is Dead, its five songs represent the band’s most confident outing to date – moody, mysterious and epic, yet buzzing with the quartet’s ever-present knack for an irresistible pop hook.
www.thejezabels.com
www.myspace.com/jezabelsband
www.facebook.com/TheJezabels
twitter.com/thejezabels
 
Liet International 2010
On Saturday 27th of November the Breton city of An Orient (French: Lorient) will host the seventh edition of European minority language song contest Liet International, the one and only song contest for singers and bands who sing in a European minority language.
In previous contests Liet international had songs in languages such as Basque, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, Corsican, Frisian, Friulian, Gaelic, Galician, Karelian, Lowgerman, Manx, Meankieli, Mordvinian, Northfrisian, Occitan, Romani, Sámi, Sorbian, Votian and Welsh. The Sámi (Laps) have won the festival four times, but the 2008 contest in Swedish Lapland was won by the Corsican singer Jacques Culioli.
 
Lliendes – Xera (Asturies, Spain) Jamendo
One of the bands in the contest final is Asturian folk music group Xera. Asturies is right up in the far north of Spain facing out over the Bay of Biscay. Head due north from there and it’s pretty much next stop Dublin!
Their sound is an integration of electronic and traditional Asturian music, mixing live instruments with samplers, industrial percussion… with a symphonic treatment that result in a very wide spectrum of sensations.
You can buy the CD or listen to the full Lliendes album for free on their site where you can also find more info about them (philosophy, concerts, etc.)

xera.com.es

This domain may be for sale!

www.jamendo.com/en/album/4722
Check out the contest site too at: www.liet.nl/internationaal/
 
I was in Southwold yesterday to meet up with Rob Chase who chose this month’s Adnams Artist of the Month and has the glorious title of “Fine” wine manager upon which I, of course, immediately challenged him.
There is an extended version of the interview with Rob on the SnC site under Artist of the Month (well, there will be tomorrow) and there will be an interview with October’s AOTM Jordan Reyne in next week’s SnC.

Blood – Jordan Reyne (New Zealand via Hamburg)
Jordan’s unusual approach to music pairs the rhythms of steam-based technology and machinery with folk instruments and vocal styles, crossing technology with history to tell the dark stories of characters real and imagined. As evidenced by her 3 nominations for the “Tui” Music Award in her native New Zealand and her performance on the soundtrack of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, she is a serious artist who puts an immense amount of time and effort into her work.
There is an interview with Jordan in next week’s show. She is one articulate and interesting woman with a very interesting approach to creating and playing her music. 
www.jordanreyne.com
twitter.com/JordanReyne
 
The Extras, is a remarkable book of photographs by my podcasting colleague George Smyth. In it he beautifully records images of those people with whom he has no direct connection, who play no significant part in his life and yet who populate his world. The Extras.
George’s Bromoil prints are stunningly beautiful low resolution one-off prints. No two prints, even from the same negative, can ever be the same. There is an explanation of the process at the back of the book which you can view online and, if inclined, purchase from the site. Please do take a look I think it is just magic.
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1648400
 
Snow & Taxis – Gold Panda (Essex, UK)
“I didn’t want to write ‘beats,’” says UK producer Gold Panda, “I didn’t want bangers. I wanted songs with structure.” And yet, despite the artist’s protests to the contrary, his debut album, Lucky Shiner, is full of bangers—of a kind. “Lots of factors affected the way it came together,” he explains, “touring, mixing, moving houses and splitting with a girlfriend. Family, friends, and lovers, places I’ve never been.” It’s that mix of directness and emotion that characterizes Lucky Shiner, an album of beat-driven electronic music that’s easy to fall in love with, and to. In Gold Panda’s world, vinyl-static beats and heart-on-sleeve melancholia collide, and the results are breathtaking.
The first single, “Snow & Taxis,” is available at The Ghostly Store (digital only) now and available at all digital retailers in North America and Continental Europe while the 12″/Digital version is available in the UK now.  The single includes remixes from Glitterbug and Throwing Snow . Cologne-based producer Glitterbug’s “Pink Snow Balls Remix” stretches Gold Panda’s original to nearly twice its length, expanding the track’s sense of time into nine minutes of luscious ambient twirls and swirls. UK producer Throwing Snow bumps the BPM to a near-frantic speed and stirs up a flurry of micro-samples that lend “Snow & Taxis” a giddy, disorienting rush.
Some dates in UK:
11.11 Brighton, UK @ Audio
11.13 Newcastle, UK @ The Cut
11.14 Leeds, UK @ Constellations Festival
11.15 Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge
11.16 Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts
11.18 London, UK @ Corsica Studios
11.19 Bristol, UK @ Start the Bus
11.20 Norwich, UK @ Arts Centre … and France …
12.10 Lille, FR @ La Peniche
12.11 Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie

Ghostly International

Ghostly is a record label and art company that aims to provide work of high quality, integrity and individuality.