No Age presents

This evening I finally got round to seeing No Age perform after two years of listening to them and multiple missed opportunities during their previous UK tours. This however was not an ordinary gig; held at the ICA, the event consisted of the band performing a live soundtrack to Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1988 film The Bear, which follows an orphaned bear cub who befriends an older, male grizzly bear who has been wounded by hunters, and charts their companionship and attempts to avoid the guns of the two hunters. It provided a more than suitable back drop to the sounds coming from below the screen, No Age's instrumental improvisation allowing you to to sit back and lose yourself in the narrative of the - at times quite poignant - film. Playing continuously for the length of the film it was akin to album tracks such as Impossible Bouquet or Escarpment, the guitars and electronics at time melodic and at others crashing down, with walls of distortion and drums used to heighten the tension at certain moments throughout the film. Managing to avoid both repetitiveness and overbearing the film, their understated playing style, doing a lot with not a lot, turned this marriage of music and film into a pretty successful one in my opinion. Perhaps more No Age film scores are needed?

If you hear a piano fall...

Considering how much of a big deal The White Stripes have been through my so called formative years I thought it would be wrong to not acknowledge their passing. Just one of their many hits, directed by Michel Gondry no less.

Inspired

Atlanta sounds

Let's try and revive this blog..

I moved back to London on Sunday and it almost feels like I was never away, settling a little to easily back into old routines. Anyway, as an attempt to start blogging more regularly again, here are a few things I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks...

The London Art Book Fair, held this weekend at the Whitechapel Gallery. Will have to try pretty hard not to bankrupt myself on discount books...

Launching my website, whilst I finally get past my indecisiveness and manage to finish it.

Gauguin at Tate Modern.

New releases from No Age and Deerhunter, both of which sound pretty good from what I've heard on various streams on the internet...

Ever since watching Annie Hall the other night I've also started lusting after a corduroy blazer. Whilst this stunning example from Margeret Howell may be slightly unobtainable Uniqlo do an almost identical one for a snip of the price...

Viva Las Vegas

Just watched a programme on iplayer about Elvis' Vegas years, the final chapters of his life that, after initially providing him with a comeback no-one could have imagined, eventually led to his tragic downfall...

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older

Can't stop listening to The Beach Boys, summer must be on the way...

Music from big pink

I couldn't resist posting this, the one band currently restoring my faith in British music. The hype's been building for a while, and I'm very excited about the soon to be released album.

In other news, check out my now up and running photography project that I mentioned before here.

Just a thought..

American music is far superior to British music these days. From all corners of the continent North America seems to be producing the most original and exciting bands that have emerged in recent years, whilst over here all we seem to come up with is more and more substandard indie bands obsessed more with image than music, that are so beloved by the NME and Radio One. Animal Collective, No Age, Grizzly Bear, Telepathe, Health, Abe Vigoda, Yeasayer, Deerhunter... The list is seemingly endless, with thriving scenes in Williamsburg on the East Coast and LA on the West providing a real community spirit (just look at The Smell), and other big names showing that the rest of the country has something to offer too: Fleet Foxes are doing a pretty good job at keeping up Seattle's musical heritage, whilst bands like White Denim and The Dodos, although not the most original, are still a far more interesting proposition than another Scouting For Girls. Even the side projects, like Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound or Grizzly Bear Daniel Rossen's Department of Eagles (whose last album is one of the best things I've heard in quite a while) are getting more praise than our own homegrown 'talent'.

There are, of course, exceptions. I believe that Foals are one of the most exciting British bands of recent years, their debut album consistenly great from start to finish, and their B-sides are often as good as the A-sides, which bodes well for a second offering. The Big Pink are another band promising greatness, and I look forward to hearing the debut long player, and Fuck Buttons deserve a mention. However, and I may just be making a terrible sweeping statement here, it just seems that the only bands getting any exposure are the dregs of that last great British musical revolution, New Rave (any band with some synths), a third rate Joy Division wannabe band or another female solo artist whose songs are kind of average, yet just because they are a girl making music they are thrown into the limelight. I mean, there are many far more talented female musicians than Little Boots (Emmy the Great?), we just don't seem to be trying very hard to find them.

That seems to be the whole point, we don't seem to be trying very hard at all. It seems our musical standards have slipped, there no longer seems to be a clamour to find the next Beatles, all we want is another radio-friendly sing-a-long or the next X-Factor winner. Perhaps it's the recession, and no-one being brave enough to invest in good music, but even so it doesn't seem like there's much of an underground scene trying to make its voice heard. It's time for the independent labels to come along and remind us that we can make good music, just as they have done in America.

Anyway, some songs I've been listening to the past few months. American, of course..

No Age - Teen Creeps
Wavves - Gun In The Sun
The Dodos - Fools
Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood
Times New Viking - My Head
Animal Collective - Grass
Health - Perfect Skin
Yeasayer - 2080
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Bon Iver - The Wolves (Act I & II )

Just read about this..

No Age + Paris + Skateboards. I think 'sick' is the word.