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Elliott Morris @ Kind

Elliott Morris @ The Jolly Brewer - Review

Flattering guest review by Calum Fuller.

It is difficult to comprehend exactly how Elliot Morris got so good at playing the guitar in such a short space of time. At eighteen years of age, many artists are still experimenting with new sounds and have no coherent direction to their music. KT Tunstall et al. certainly were in that predicament at eighteen. There is no such indecision here.

Instead, those at the gig at Lincoln’s Jolly Brewer were treated to a virtuoso performance that belied Morris’ years. His rhythmic, complex, unpretentious playing holds the attention immediately, and will no doubt draw comparisons with Newton Faulkner, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and other such luminaries. Despite that, his music is still hard to define, taking elements from world music and rock but still healthily imbued with a liberal dash of individuality.

A potent combination indeed, and with a set entirely made up of original material, it was not long before the crowd was won over, presumably because they had realised they had been presented with an artist on top form. Morris leads the music deftly with his Faulkner-esque double-tapping , going from raging speed to soulful reverie in the space of a fret, while almost simultaneously employing a more percussion-based approach. The result is astounding. It is fresh, and given the broad scope of the lyrics and the precision and finesse of the instrumentals, coupled with solid vocals, it is easy to see why his stock is rising.

Guy Butter @ TJB, Lincoln

Childish Gambino - Get Like Me

The NY comedy troupe Derrick Comedy have been working on their first feature film, Mystery Team. It looks amazing, but that's not what I'm writing about.



Donald Glover of Derrick has been making music under the name mcDJ for a while, and now records as Childish Gambino. Because I'm magic, you can launch his MySpace player and listen.

The track featured in the trailer for Mystery Team is called Get Like Me, and has just been released on the Childish Gambino blog for download.

Baddies' First Release

Baddies are a Southend band consisting of Michael Webster (formerly of Engerica), Simon Bellamy, Jim Webster and Danny Rowton. The band quickly started recording and touring, and seem to be getting a lot of attention. Their published discography so far totals two tracks on the split EP twobythree with Reuben and The Ghost Of A Thousand. Battleships and Tiffany I'm Sorry are two immediately loveable and individual tracks, and for fans of the deceased Engerica the band's sound is both comfortably familiar and something new.

The band have recently announced a download and limited 7" release of Battleships, (recorded anew with Sean Genocky), and the new song Block It Out. It'll be out on the 27th October.

Though I may pay little mind to the new version of Battleships, I can't wait for an unheard track. When you're a new band with a strong sound and a small collection of songs, there's not much you can do wrong. Every song is a gem.

Finally, a Victory

-Part 1 2

After the dust had settled I got an official People in Planes newsletter about their exciting new release and all the places I could purchase it. The letter also mentioned that Mayday (M'aidez) could be downloaded for free from Amazon.com's online download service.

Here's what you'll be needing to download Mayday (M'aidez) by People in Planes:

1. An account with Amazon (in any country)
   
2. Mina's grandma's postal address
3. An anonymous American proxy server

When you have acquired all of these items you may proceed with your incredibly convoluted plot to download free Welsh music.

Why I'm not listening to People in Planes

-Part 1

It's the 9th of September, getting towards the end of the day. I had one thing to do: buy Beyond the Horizon, People in Planes' new album. I hurried to Fopp where a friendly guy told me they hadn't ordered any in, but they could if I wanted. I shuffled over to HMV, but it was the same story. I've also now noticed that Amazon UK have none in stock either.

Seriously England, what the hell? This is the kind of lack-lustre effort that makes bands head for distant shores and foreign record labels. If you don't care two bags of chips what's happening in your own music scene, how are innovative bands supposed to survive? This is why you're dancing to the Kooks while Oceansize are brokering deals with German publishers. This is why you don't deserve an advance iTunes release of Mayday (M'aidez). I hope you're happy with yourselves.

Continued...

How does a voice like that come out of this man?

This is Nathan Willet, singer for Cold War Kids. I would have to see it to believe it.

Cold War Kids are working hard

Cold War Kids' first album, Robbers and Cowards, quickly found a comfortable niche in my collection. Their disregard for tempo and key, while producing such a passionate and professional sound, intrigued me.

So after a long break, the Californian quartet have released a downloadable single called Something is Not Right With Me, from their new album Loyalty to Loyalty. You can listen on their MySpace player. I'm still feeling the sound, but I'm hoping there are some much stranger tracks waiting for us on September 23rd.

The band are also playing an impressive number of gigs over the coming months of winter, from Los Angeles to Paris. I'll see you in Manchester.

I love Creative Commons

So I finally finished All Roads to Feltwell, and I used some interesting music.

The 13 seconds of lovely guitar from the opening are from Small Victories by a Mark Fawcett, from his album Confusion Rides. Since I invented MySpace, I hooked him up a while back and now you can listen to his music by launching his MySpace player.

The soundtrack also featured kARhu. I used his track Yellow from the album Sinfonia for the Blunt Sword. The whole album is generously available for download from his website, and he's already working on some new tracks.

I also used the track 26 - Ghosts III from Nine Inch Nail's tragically-tagged album Ghosts. Trent practically begged me to put his music in one of my shorts, and since we're such good friends I did him a favour. The album is a amazing, self-indulgent collection of two-minute experiments, which was available in a super mega collector's package, or a free download.

What's available now is a $5 full download or only the first 8 tracks. I definitely encourage paying so little for good music, but it looks like Trent had a change of heart after he sold out of the deluxe editions. Still, all 36 tracks are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, and that means it is legal to download and share them as much as you want. This is one of those lovely ocassions where you can use your torrent client without breaking the law.

HPR released an album and didn't tell me

I've loved these guys since I invented MySpace, and apparently they finally released their debut album last year. Naturally, I'm ashamed.

The album is available from Small Town or Amazon, and you can whet your appetite with their MySpace player.

Blackholes (2006-2008)

An Oxford-based band, Crackout got snuffed out in 2004. Jazz-influenced alternative rock, Crackout quickly found a special place on my shelf. They had two albums, This is Really Neat and Oh No!.

But they're not what this post is about, no. This post is about that shadowy figure who hates me. His new victim:

Blackholes (2006-2008)

Based again in Oxford, although I can only guess, Blackholes were a phoenix of Crackout started in 2006. Not to be confused with the Milwaukee 80s punk band by the same name. I found them through MySpace and ordered their homebrew demo The Alcohol EP. I received it within a couple of days in a lovely pressed cardboard sleeve with a signed flyer on the inside. The disc itself was home-burned, and written all over by the band. It made me very happy, and it featured four great songs. I was eagerly expecting great things from these guys. Alas...

Aside from the demo version of Service With a Sigh, I think I've collected Blackholes' incredible six-song discography that was available on their MySpace. Incidentally, if anyone still has the original download of that track, please let me know and I'll love you eternally.

How do things become obscure? I have now experienced it first-hand. It seems to me that if my arch nemesis can play dirty, crossing out a band that's barely begun, it's so easy for these things to sink into the lost depths of time. Already the only public connection to this band is their MySpace page, and soon enough there won't be a trace of them left. I feel a profound duty to preserve and guard my copy of The Alcohol EP with my life.

Snowglobe blow my mind for 30 seconds

Snowglobe are an indie/folkish band from Memphis who released their album under Makeshift Music.

I listened to the whole album, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was interesting, but nothing extremely interesting, or so I thought. I let my guard down after eleven tracks, then it happened. Try launching their MySpace player and listening to the track called Experiments.

Now I love them.

People in Planes live videos

Also if you haven't had a chance to see it already, the official video of Pretty Buildings is amazing.

It's nice that they remember their roots

People in Planes (formerly Tetra Splendour (formerly Robots in the Sky)) recently re-entered the musical world, announcing the new album Beyond the Horizon, coming out on the 9th September. They're a Welsh band now signed to Wind-Up records, the same label as Finger Eleven and apparently Evanescence... In the run up to the CD, the band have released two tracks as singles on iTunes.

Want to see what happens when I try to buy them?

Wind-Up seem to be pretty geared towards online networking and promotion, so why are they making this fatal flaw? I can live without Mayday for a couple of weeks, but they're losing a large amount of potential revenue here on the home continent.

Bitching aside, the album sounds amazing so far. Pretty Buildings and Mayday (M'aidez) are both solid tracks, and you can listen to them both on the band's official site. For a limited time you can download Pretty Buildings for free by signing up to the mailing list here, and you can also download a live, acoustic version of Mayday from BFN.

Continued...

Chuck Fails

-How long do you want me to stay?

-42 minutes and 15 seconds? The length of the first Arcade Fire album.

-Fucking idiot.
-There goes the mood.

Sorry Chuck, but you're playing The Weight of the World by the Editors. And the first Arcade Fire studio album is 47 minutes and 52 seconds long. You'd think all those subliminal CIA images would have filled you in on stuff like that.

Are all Finnish bands allowed to be this pretentious?