Torr

Bits & Bobs

Sigur Ros will be playing a special acoustic set this Thursday at the Vista Theatre before a screening of Heima. When I saw 'em live in '05 I was literally bored to sleep. Sorry, but not writing any actual lyrics is just bullshit, no matter how good the music behind it is. And it doesn't help that they're a bunch of pretentious pricks and that they've never written in a hook in their career. Slowdive long ago proved that you could be shoegazey and still have hooks.

Arcade Fire covered butchered The Smiths' "Still ill" at a show in Manchester the other day. Lead guy can't sing for shit and the female wailing like a banshee in the background is just ridiculous.

Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos have signed to Epic Records. Interesting since their sound is not exactly what they kids are buying now-a-days. Their 2nd album will be out in '08.

Mojo's 2nd season of London Live returned last week with performances from Editors (great), Air (snooze) Klaxons (atrocious) and, er...Robin Thicke (haha) You can watch video of the episode.

And finally, this guy isn't gonna shave his beard until Metallica release another album.

Richard Hawley sets North American tour

Richard Hawley has announced a North America tour in support of his new album Lady's Bridge. The album (which is his 5th) hit #6 on the UK charts when released back in June. Check out the video for 1st single "Tonight the Streets Are Ours."

Apparently Hawley also appears in the new UK horror-comedy film Flick.

Richard Hawley North American tour dates

12/01 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
12/02 Philadelphia, PA - World Café Live
12/04 Boston, MA - TT the Bear’s
12/05 Toronto, ON -  Horseshoe Tavern
12/06 Chicago, IL - The Abbey
12/07 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar
12/10 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Café
12/12 San Fracisco, CA - Café du Nord
12/13 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour

He'll be bringing out on the road with him: John Trier (keyboards), Shez Sheridan (guitar), Dean Beresford (drums), Colin Elliot (bass.) I saw Hawley at SXSW in '05 and he was great live.

p.s.
I still miss Longpigs. Apparently Crispin Hunt is working on a solo album?

UK Chart Report

Here are the notable UK chart entries for the week of Mon Oct 29th...

Albums:

• #50 Dave Gahan - Hourglass [#50? Owch. His first album got #36.]

Indie-label albums chart:

• #13 Band Of Horses - Cease to Begin

Singles:

• #10 Oasis - "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" [Vid. Lackluster download-only one-off single. Would Noel please stop bellowing?]
• #44 The Courteeners - "Acrylic" [Vid. 2nd single from Manchester 4-piece.]

Indie-label singles chart:

• #1 UNKLE - "Hold My Hand" [Vid. 2nd single from War Stories.]
• #7 The Teenagers - "Starlett Johansson"
• #11 Grammatics - "Shadow Committee" [Debut from Leeds 4-piece.]
• #24 We Start Fires - "Let's Get Our Hands Dirty" [Vid. 1st single from their debut album.]

These singles, sadly, did not chart:

• Los Campesinos - "International Tweecore Underground" [Vid. 2nd single from Cardiff 8-piece.]
• The Rocks - "The Game Is Up"/"Too Much Too Soon" [7"-only debut from London 5-piece.]

Out in the UK on Monday

Here's the notable stuff that's out in the UK on Mon Oct 29th...

Albums:

Nine Black Alps - Love / Hate  [Sophomore (much more melodic) album from Manchester 4-piece.]

IAMX - The Alternative [Debut 2nd album from ex-Sneaker Pimps frontman Chris Corner.]

Singles:

Dragons - "Lonely Tonight" [Vid above. 2nd single from their debut album.]

Keane - "The Night Sky" [Vid. Underwhelming Warchild charity single.]

One Night Only - "You And Me" [Vid. Debut from Helmsley 5-piece.]

The Troubadours - "Gimme Love" [Vid. Debut from Wigan / Liverpool 4-piece.]

Eugene McGuinness - "Bold Street" [First single from his debut album.]

Slow Club - "Me And You" [Vid. Debut from male-female duo.]

Download The Charlatans new single + Video

The Charlatans have made an mp3 of their new single available to download for free at XFM's site. The band will even be giving away free downloads of their new album early next year! This new song is quite a bit different from the band's last few albums and kinda sounds like New Order musically and vocally. I've posted it for download here because the XFM link is slow as hell.

• The Charlatans - "You Cross My Path" [4:01]

"I am the sound of Iraq / I am the sound of the red sea / I am the voice of the almighty / I am the sound of your own dreams"

And here's the video:

Out in the U.S. on Tuesday

Here's the notable stuff that's out in the U.S. on Tuesday Oct 23rd.

The Thrills - Teenager [Their great 3rd album. I can't stop listening to it. Can't wait to see 'em.]

Babyshambes - Shotter's Nation (CD/DVD) [Not bad! Much better than their crappy debut.]

iLiKETRAiNs - Elegies to Lessons Learnt [Full-length debut from Leeds slowcore band.]

Soft - Gone Faded [Debut from NY band that sounds quite a lot like The Charlatans/Stone Roses.]

Seabear - The Ghost That Carried Us Away [Debut from Iceland twee-pop band.]

UK Chart Report

Here are the notable UK chart entries for the week of Mon Oct 22nd...

Albums:

• #1 Stereophonics - Pull the Pin [I wonder if/when it will be released in the U.S.?]

Indie-label albums chart:

• #13 David Ford - Songs for the Road [2nd solo album from ex-Easyworld singer.]

Singles:

• #15 The Wombats - "Let's Dance To Joy Division" [Vid. Their debut album is out next month.]

Indie-label singles chart:

• #7 Winterkids - "Wonderland" [Vid]
• #11 Sky Larkin - "Molten" [2nd single from female-fronted Leeds 4-piece.]

These singles, sadly, did not chart:

• Nine Black Alps - "Bitter End" [Vid. Very good 2nd single from their upcoming album.]
• Richard Hawley "Serious" [Vid. Another good single from Lady's Bridge]
• Alberta Cross - "Leave Us Or Forgive Us" [Vid. 7"-only. They released a mini-album in the U.S. last month.]

Download new Verve demo

Last week bassist Simon Jones posted on his myspace about the Verve reunion:

the remainder of the week was spent rehearsing "up north" (what a freakin luxury to make music away from that big London place!) with Nick and Pete. Richard will be joining us later when we've gotten the music together. Gotta say - twas the greatest few days playin' old tunes!

Started with Life's an Ocean and gotta say it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! So far we got a short list of about 20 odd tunes to pool from for these first gigs, in no particular order we played -

Make it till Monday, Virtual world, She's a Superstar, Gravity Grave, This is Music, A New Decade, On your Own, History, Stormy Clouds, Life's an Ocean, A Northern Soul, All in the Mind! (Sounded Amazing), B.S.S., Drugs don't Work, Sonnet, Lucky Man, Come on, Weeping Willow, Rolling people, Velvet morning, Space and time, Man Called sun, Starsail and new ones, should I give titles away yet? fck it - Sit and Wonder, Judas, Appalachian Springs. Other new ones we are planning to do - maybe - Mona Lisa and Rather Be.

I don't want to give the game away (already have) but I would like some feedback on all this-Now's the time to speak up! What have we missed that u wanna hear? Is it too early to play new stuff? do we skip the obvious? do we do the obscure? Let me know! Later.....Si Jones.

Very cool to see that they're rehearsing songs from all three albums. I'm particularly partial to Urban Hymns and was kinda worried they would overlook a lot of that material, since most of it was written solely by Richard Ashcroft during the time when the band was broken up.

As for those new song-titles, wasn't "Mona Lisa" one of those pre-Urban Hymns demos that Ashcroft did?

UPDATE: NME has posted a rather uninspiring new jammy demo from the band:

• "The Thaw Sessions" [14:08]

If this is an indication of what the new album will sound like than I'm no longer excited.

Out in the UK on Monday

Here's the notable stuff that's out in the UK on Mon Oct 22nd.

Singles:

The Courteeners - "Acrylic" [Vid above. 2nd single from Manchester 4-piece.]

Wojtek Godzisz - "Moon And The Yew Tree" [Vid. 2nd single from London guy.]

Los Campesinos - "International Tweecore Underground" [Vid. 2nd single from Cardiff 8-piece.]

We Start Fires - "Let's Get Our Hands Dirty" [Vid. 1st single from their debut album.]

The Rocks - "The Game Is Up"/"Too Much Too Soon" [Debut from London 5-piece.]

Catweasels - Elderly Instruments EP [Debut from Chester-le-Street 5-piece.]

Bombay Bicycle Club - How Are We EP [2nd EP from English 4-piece.]

Grammatics - "Shadow Committee" [Debut from Leeds 4-piece.]

Mobius Band = Heaven

I saw Mobius Band play a great set @ Club NME here in LA last night, so I just wanted to insist that anyone in these towns come out and support the trio on their remaining tour dates. Their new (2nd) album Heaven is out now.

10/18 SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Mezzanine
10/19 PORTLAND, OR - Holocene
10/20 SEATTLE, WA - Crocodile Cafe
10/21 VANCOUVER, BC - Media Club
10/24 MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Triple Rock
10/25 MADISON, WI Cafe - Montemarte
10/26 WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - The Venue
10/27 CLEVELAND, OH - Grog Shop
10/28 EAST LANSING, MI MSU - Union Ballroom
10/30 CHICAGO, IL - The Empty Bottle
11/01 AMES, IA - Maintenance Shop at ISU
11/02 COLUMBIA, MO - Mojo's
11/03 ST. LOUIS, MO - Creepy Crawl
11/04 COLUMBUS, OH - The Basement
11/06 PONTIAC, MI - The Pike Room
11/07 TORONTO, ON - Horseshoe
11/08 MONTREAL, QC - Petit Campus
11/30 NORTHAMPTON, MA - Iron Horse
12/02 BOSTON, MA - Middle East Downstairs

And speaking of Club NME L.A. they're finally starting to book good bands! Air Traffic Oct 24th, The Thrills Nov 7th, and The Rumble Strips Dec 5th.

Combine those with recently announced LA shows from Richard Hawley, Athlete, Travis, Maximo Park, IAMX, The Orange Lights, Emma Pollock etc. and the rest of the year is looking great for shows!