The Art Of Kissing Properly

Stylus magazine hit the nail on the head last year when describing moi Caprice's third album The Art Of Kissing Properly as “soundtrack music”. It can literally turn a dull dreary walk into work into a cinematic experience, to transport you to another place. Jesus, if a song like "The Town & The City" can make Ipswich feel like Paris then it must be good huh? For those of you, like myself new to the dramatic synth pop of moi Caprice please allow myself to give you a quick recap of their career thus far. (with a little help from the internet).

Danish 4 piece band moi Caprice rose to underground fame in the late nineties when they entered the top slot on the Alternative Chart with the song The Sun & the Silence as the first unsigned band ever. A few years would pass before the band released their first actual single, Daisies, and despite it being a slightly awkward ballad, the song turned into a minor hit in Denmark, and with 7 consecutive weeks in the top slot of the Alternative Chart is was the biggest hit on the chart in 2002.

The band ended the year with a nomination for best new band of the year at the Danish Radio Awards. The next single, Artboy Meets Artgirl, proved moi Caprice one of the finest art rock bands in the country, and paved the way for their 2003 full-length debut, Once Upon a Time in the North, which was widely praised by the critics. After an extensive tour moi Caprice released their second album, You Cant Say No Forever, in early 2005. Again the reviews were amazing, some claiming it a true masterpiece. Both To the Lighthouse and My Girl You Blush turned into hits, on both the Alternative and the mainstream charts. In early 2006 moi Caprice was nominated for the grand prize of the Radio Awards. moi Caprice has been widely acknowledged for their skillful song writing, their apt ear for the pop tune in a dark melancholic musical setting, their highly intelligent lyrics in an original style that is in arguably the sound of no one but themselves.

All clued up now? Excellent. So the bands third full length was released last year on Glorious Records and for the first half at least is a pretty solid record. It mixes perfectly crafted love lorn lyrics with lush synths and breathy atmospherics with Phil Spector-esque drums thrown in for good measure. Think what the Pet Shop Boys would sound like if they spent a fortnight in Europe making beautiful music with Camera Obscura and you'd be headed in the right direction. It starts off strong with the title track followed by "The Town & The City" and "For Once In Your Life Try To Fight For Something You Believe In", the latter sounding somewhat like a distant relative to The Flaming Lips'' "Do You Realize?". It is an album, I've found, best played in small portions. After a while things to start to get a little samey, almost as if the band have put all their best ideas into the first four or five songs and then repeated the formula for the remainder of the record. When its good though, its absolutely breathtaking and certainly worthy of investigation.

The band are yet to confirm any UK dates as of yet but are heading over to Canada and the States next month for a quick tour, most notably for the SXSW festival. Dates are as follows:

8 March - Silver Dollar Room. Toronto
10 March - Canadian Music Week. Toronto
12 March - Union Hall. New York
13 March - Pianos. New York
15 March - Uncle Flirty's. Austin, Texas
16 March - SXSW. Austin, Texas
17 March - Tiswas, The Annex. New York



[MP3] moi Caprice - The Town & The City

For more info visit the bands myspace page @ www.myspace.com/moicaprice

Review: Blackstrap - Steal My Horses And Run

I swear they must be putting something in the water in Sweden. Sure, the past decade has seen the country produce a number of successful indie bands - The Cardigans, The Wannadies & The Hives being the most successful internationally - but never has there been a rush like this.

Last year saw a load of fabulous Swedish indie pop releases from I'm From Barcelona, Jens Lekman, Surburban Kids With Biblical Names, Loney, Dear and Peter, Bjorn & John to name just a handful. All these albums were greeted with vast critical acclaim with Pitchfork scoring the Jens Lekman album "Oh You're So Silent Jens" a whopping 8.5/10 and Bella Union label boss Simon Raymonde claiming Loney, Dear's "Sologne" to be "one of the most incredible albums i own, it will seriously make your life better". An album that slipped under the radar though was "Steal My Horses And Run" the sophomore album from Stockholm 4-piece Blackstrap. Released at the tail end of 2006 to rave reviews in Sweden, Germany & Holland and receiving a fair amount of radio play on US indie stations, it has pretty much gone unnoticed here in the UK.

Lets hope that will change soon because this is an album to fall in love with, to cherish and to tell all you're friends about. The easiest way to describe the sound of these guys is to mention their influences; Jesus & Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Joy Division & Primal Scream. Its blissfully fucked up rock n roll drenched in fuzzed out guitars and atmospheric shared lead vocals from Jonatan Westh and Maria Lindén.

The opener "Winning Speech" sounds like a harder, better, faster, stronger version of "Medication" from Primal Scream's Vanishing Point. Its a perfect blueprint for whats to follow, and just as the final chord rings out you're smacked around the face with the juggernaut of a track that is "Rough Parade", an obvious choice for a single and a sure fire hit at festivals this summer with its call and response boy girl vocal in the same vein as The Ravonettes but with a more poppy sheen to it. Things continue at full throttle with "Lay Down Low", this track has a great vocal by Westh, his Swedish drawl fits perfectly with the pounding rhythm section. Things slow down a little with "The Far Gone" and "The Open Road", a real gem of a track, this would fit perfectly on the Lost In Translation soundtrack, a hypnotic drone of guitars and vocals which leads onto possibly the strongest moment "The Bitter, The Sweet", even though it draws comparisons to early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, it has more bite, more attitude. The only acoustic track on the album is the dark and brooding "Still Lost", swathes of background noise combined with acoustic guitar and a haunting vocal by Lindén lead the song, its not until a pounding floor tom draws the song to a close is in its final minute.

Weighing in at just under 50 minutes there really isn't a weak moment on these 13 songs. If you're a fan of the twisted rock n roll that The Duke Spirit or Howling Bells produce then I strongly urge you to check it out. An overlooked classic that hopefully will be heard by many more sets of ears this year.

The album will get a UK release later this year but for now you can buy the CD for €16 which works out at about £10 from youmakemusic.com

For more info on the band visit:

blackstrap.net [official site]
myspace.com/blackstrap001 [myspace]
sallyforth records [label]

Watch:
Blackstrap - Winning Speech & Lay Down Low


Listen:
Blackstrap - Rough Parade


Blackstrap - The Bitter, The Sweet

Review: The Morning Stars - You Can't Change The World

Creating a bit of a stir in the Canadian music scene of late have been 4-piece The Morning Stars. The band got together in 2004 as a vehicle for the songs of brothers Mars & Michael Ivic but have only just gotten round to putting out their debut "You Can't Change The World".

The band play an interesting mix of classic rock which has a definite British influence but mixed successfully with intelligent West Coast harmonies. Think Oasis or The Who having a love in with The Byrds and you're almost there.

Kicking things off is foot stomper "Hearts For The Living", its apparent from the first couple of minutes that these guys have an ear for writing a decent pop song. The mix of harmonies and atmospheric guitar in the chorus is so infectious it gets stuck in your head for hours. Things continue at a steady pace with "Wrong" with its New Order-esque intro it quickly transforms into a 3 minute power pop track that would have fit nicely onto the last Big Star album. Alex Chilton would be proud.

However, things take a turn for the middle of the road with the instantly forgetable title track "You Can't Change The World". Its pleasant enough but doesn't quite have the bite of the previous tracks. Things continue at a similar pace with "Steal My Love" and its not until the psychedelic stomp of "All Coming Down" until things pick up. Its like The Second Coming by The Stone Roses condensed into three and a half minutes.
The real highlight and centrepiece of the album though is "Don't Waste Time" with its stadium sized guitar riff and pounding drums its an instantly lovable track with some great production techniques and a melody that Bono would kill for if he wasn't too busy trying to save the world. A sure sign that there is greater things to come from these guys.

Unfortunately the last two tracks are pretty much throwaway. I found myself grating my teeth at the Liam Gallagher imitations on album closer "Fall". It has a nice sentiment "You've got to hold on / Tomorrow will be better" but comes across as one of those arse clenching ballads that get played over football highlights. A total Oasis rip off, akin to "Stop Crying Your Heart Out " or "Let There Be Love" and lets face it, even they don't do it very well.

All in all its a fairly enjoyable but ultimately patchy debut. Fans of no nonsense rock music should check them out. If they stick to what they're good at these guys could go places.


Links:
official website
myspace page

The track "Don't Waste Time" appears on this months Line Of Best Fit playlist which you can download from here.

The Decemberists - London Shepherds Bush Empire 08/02/07

Thursday night saw The Decemberists play an outstanding show at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Playing to a sell out crowd the band put on a good two hour set - Colin was in fine humour and interacted with the crowd really well. The main event occured in the first encore when the band were joined by Robyn Hitchcock and Mike Scott from The Waterboys.

The setlist went something like this:

The Crane Wife 3
The Island:

Come And See / The Landlord's Daughter / You'll Not Feel The Drowning
Billy Liar
We Both Go Down Together
The Engine Driver
Yankee Bayonet
Shankill Butchers
O Valencia!
16 Military Wives
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
Sons & Daughters
***
Eli, The Barrow Boy
Madonna of the Wasps (with Robyn Hitchcock)
Fisherman's Blues (with Mike Scott)
***
A Cautionary Song (including a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party)

Supporting the band were LA 4-piece Lavender Diamond who play quirky indie pop, certainly worth further investigation - their myspace page is here.

I was pleased to discover my pictures have been mentioned on The Decemberists tour blog over on Gigwise. Check it out here.

Fellow blogger and friend Richard Hughes, who, unfortunately was unable to attend the show has review the new album over on CD Times. Like myself, he thinks its rather good. Read all about it here.

The pick of the best pictures are below in a couple of slideshows - enjoy...

Lavender Diamond:

The Decemberists:

Also a couple of videos I found on YouTube....

Sons & Daughters [with Audience members]


Some crowd aerobics......


16 Military Wives

The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America

Currently on extreme heavy rotation on my ipod is The Hold Steady's third album Boys And Girls In America. It took a while to sink in (6 months to be precise) but my god it was worth it. Friend of Line Of Best Fit Richard Hughes reviewed it over here.

The band are jetting over to the UK for a brief tour in February.

Feb 13th Manchester Night & Day (Club Fandango)
Feb 14th Glasgow Cathouse
Feb 15th Hoxton Bar And Grill SOLD OUT
Feb 16th Club NME @ Camden Koko
Feb 17th London Borderline
Feb 18th London Borderline

These guys have a fabulous live reputation so seeing them in such an intimate venue as the Borderline should be a real treat.

Stream the album here.

Review: The Charlatans - Brixton Academy, London. 8th December 2006.

Its typical of The Charlatans to end the year on top of their game. Its what they've spent their entire career doing. Damning anyone and everyone who has ever stood in their way. They're survivors after all.
2006 has been a funny old year for the band. Appearing in the first half of the year with the poorly recieved 9th studio album Simpatico, its Reggae and Dub influences confused both fans and critics alike. But credit to them, they tried something new and with most experiments sometimes they work sometimes they don't. But they've always had spirit and when the new musical directions work they really work; take 2001's Wonderland for example - a pure slice of glorious Californian soul or the Dylanesque country of Us & Us Only for examples of their bloody mindedness and talent.

Who would have thought they would be ending this year in such a celebrated way? November saw the band release their second retrospective of their career, Forever contained a selection of the bands favourite and most successful singles to date and with this came a full UK tour. What a tour its been too - playing all their favourite haunts its clear the band have been enjoying it as much as their ever loyal fans. Just listen to the daily podcasts to hear Burgess and co gushing after every show. Brixton Academy has always been an important venue for the band, some legendary shows have taken place here, most recently from the 2004 show where the bands only live DVD was filmed.

As LCD Soundsystems' Disco Infiltrator booms from the PA and the curtain falls to reveal a huge Charlatans logo backdrop the atmosphere becomes purely electric and its not long until the band appear and kick in with career high Forever. Tim Burgess looking revitalised after kicking drink and drugs earlier this year, he skulks the stage in the way that only Tim Burgess can, its certainly clear he and the rest of the guys are on a mission, yet the audience didn't react in such the manic way that I was expecting and it wasn't until Cant Get Out Of Bed until the atmosphere clicked into place and the band shifted it up a notch. Love Is The Key blew the roof off, one of the many highlights of the evening Up At The Lake sounded fresher than ever and The Only One I Know, as it always does, sent the audience into a complete frenzy.

A Man Needs To Be Told calms things down slightly with Burgess introducing it as his "War Song" its plods along quite nicely but I cant help but feel they should have canned it for a more lesser heard live track. With no studio album to tour and a classic song cannon, surely this is the time to do it? But apart from the encore the set is all pretty safe, or maybe its just what the crowd want to hear. This is only a very minor complaint though, The Charlatans are still one of the only bands that can make me feel the way they do live. Everytime i've ever had the opportunity to see them there has always been a oneness between band and audience, a Charlatans army if you like. They are a band of the people, and not in a yobbish Kasabian way either. You can live your life through this band and you can tell from the audience that many people do. Every member of the crowd I look at are singing the words right back at TIm with such conviction you'd think they were the songs authors.

A sterling rendition of How High concludes and the band leave the stage. What follows is an encore that should blow the roof off Brixton once and for all but, never really takes off. Kicking off with NYC from Simpatico Tim announces that he's just figured out "We've got another half an hour left yet" they break into a classic rendition of debut single Indian Rope with Tony Rogers ressurecting the ghost of Rob Collins in a hammond solo that completely blows my mind. I cant help but think that the majority of the audience haven't even heard the song before though. Up next comes Then which is a late addition to the set and like Indian Rope just doesn't get the audience reaction i'd expect. A lackluster run through of Impossible follows and its not until classic set closer Sproston Green that the encore finally picks up pace. The crowd literally go mental as the self styled King of the Mods Martin Blunt kicks into the pulsating bass line and the rest of the band follow. Tim Burgess still skulking around zapping the audience with his imaginary gun. At this point i've nearly lost not only my glasses but my jeans and my right shoe. Tim leaves the stage and the guys wrap things up in their own time - Jon Brookes pounding the drums, as always as if his life depended on it. Mark Collins and Martin Blunt knowingly cool as fuck and Tony Rogers tearing his Hammond to pieces. A completely exhilarating 2 hour set is over, and as always the band won hands down. They always do.

The Charlatans - Sproston Green

Review: The Karabal Nightlife - The Other Shore

Murder ballads, Pixies-esque quite / loud melodies, and Jazz-fusion - and thats just in the first two minutes, The Karabal Nightlife sure know how to kick start an album. What follows is an intense, but often enjoyable 45 minutes of thought provoking indie rock.

The nice thing about this band which sets them apart from their peers is that they obviously are strongly influenced by classic rock n roll but arent afraid of putting their own unique stamp on it - rather than doing the easy thing of conforming into todays current trends. Most of the songs here could be garage rock stompers, but the band choose to challenge the listener instead - and it pays off. Though, its not for the occasional music listener - apart from the straight-ahead rockers "I Know Too Much" & "Short Years" you really have to work at this record to get the most out of it. Its full of rich harmonies and musical tapestries that only reveal themself to the listener after repeated plays. Album highlights "I Need A Girl (Who's Light On Her Feet" is a tender love song that puts frontman Jesse Davis' cracked vulnerable vocal to use beautifully, while "Sea Of Sleep" explores the bands obsession with Beatle-esque harmonies perfectly.

All in all its a strong debut, but I do have one small critiscm, though not to do with the music, and arguably it shouldnt matter, but to me it does... Its the very amatuer front cover design - looking like it was knocked up in Microsoft Word inbetween song takes. Album artwork is very important, and can often put people off the music before they've even put the disc in the player. Luckily, the inlay makes up for it and suits the style of the band perfectly - acting like a postcard from another era.

I urge you to investigate these guys futher. Visit the bands official website here, where you can purchase a copy of the album. Or preview tracks on their myspace page here.

The Oohlas - Best Stop Pop

Three minute blasts of power pop with more hooks than you can shake a stick at and great shared vocals from all three band members; ex-Everclear drummer (don't let that put you off) Greg Eklund, his brother Mark and Olivia (Ollie) Stone. Whats not to like?

First and foremost, lets get this straight. By no means is this debut album perfect, in fact part of me feels it would be better as an EP or mini-album. You see, the twelve tracks here offer the listener nothing new in terms of orginality, in fact it helps that the tracks alternate between Eklund and Olivia as the whole thing otherwise would end up being quite samey. From the leading single "TV Dinner" and onwards through "Cahuenga Shuffle" and "Octopus," you start to feel that the formula has reached a point where Stone's breathy drone (a cross between Metrics' Emily Haines and a punkier Jenny Lewis) begins to sink under the weight of samey-ness and the songs start to sound quite forgettable.

But underneath it all there are moments of real greatness here, in particular "Small Parts" which on the surface sounds like a summery-pop gem but underneath tells the tale of a relationship breaking down, with the lyrics "The decay of a former stone heart / Distributed into small parts / Now I cease to glow I cannot function anymore" isn't as happy go lucky as the rhythm section would suggest. You can't help but hum the chorus either with its "ahhhhh ahhhhh Dont go out the backdoor / ahhhhh ahhhh Thats what the fronts for / Chew me up & spit me out / I can't take anymore - Hardly what you'd expect from a summer anthem but it works perfectly. Other highlights include the opening tracks "Gone" & "Tripped", the latter featuring a melody again sung by the real star of the record Ollie, with her instantly likable vocal that wouldnt sound out of place on a Rilo Kiley record.

All in all this is an impressive debut which (with no fault to the band) really should have been released several months ago, to cash in on the heat of the summer.

Visit the bands myspace page here.

Review: Wondernaut - The Youth Is Wasted

Currently signed on the up and coming indie label American Laundromat Records is Billy Gro, or Wondernaut as he's most commonly known hails from Oklahoma City. He's been making a splash on American college radio stations for some time, and, after limited copies of his debut self-titled EP sold out he's back with a 12 track debut album "The Youth Is Wasted". Recorded over a period of 10 months by Billy and an 8 track, the album certainly has some moments of lo-fi beauty.

Kicking off with a 3 minute waltz of layered fuzzed out guitars and an infectious melody "Chemical Attraction Ecstasy" its obvious that Billy wears his influences on his sleeve. Not thats neccesarily a bad thing. The vocals on the opening track especially remind me of fellow Oklahoma resident Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

"U Think Yer Cool" is a stab at the uber cool underground scene with its playground-ish jibes of "U think yer cool and I am not, u think yer cool but your'e not" - its not going to win any awards for lyrical genius - but maybe thats the point. It does get your foot tapping though.

One of the oldest songs here, "Whisper" has a simple heart wrenching melody, the only downside to it, as with a lot of these songs is the over use of effects on the tracks, especially the vocals. I'd love to hear this song in particular broken down with just an acoustic guitar and vocals. The continuous flanging effects on the instruments and vocals are ultimately a distraction to what could be one of the strongest songs here.

Things pick up though with the buzz saw pop of "Valerie", "Such Sweet Melancholy" and "Out Of Friction", if you close your eyes for long enough you almost feel like you're listening to a band from the C86 era or maybe even Teengage Fanclub'isms circa Bandwagonesque / Thirteen - particulary the bands main songwriter Norman Blake, I think it might be the vocal delivery, I don't know.

What I do know is that if lo-fi college indie pop is youre thing you should certainly check this guy out.

myspace links:

Record Label - http://www.myspace.com/americanlaundromat
Artists Page - http://www.myspace.com/wondernautmusic