NME Tour Feat. Maccabees w/Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink + The Drums @ Bournemouth O2 Academy, (Feb 16, 2010)

The structure of this year's NME tour, in a nutshell, consisted of a few hundred teenage Maccabees fans turning up to see the quiet-of-late indie rock band, with what they considered two or three other of NME's more recent additions warming up as support. This lack of understanding couldn't have been demonstrated better when a completely motionless crowd stood and chattered through a stunning Big Pink set, only to turn into a swarm of over-enthused teenagers when the single 'Dominos' ended. The crowd was divided, a few stood back and gave cynical looks at the hyperactive 'jumpers' (for lack of a better word), but the vast majority proceeded to take part. It saddens me to say the least; it was the first time i'd seen them after failing to track down the Queen's Head Stage at Glastonbury last June, and to have it ruined by the unconcerned and checkered shirted Bournemouth youth was a shame. It made a shocking contrast from the nicely matured Brighton Audio crowd i'd been a part of the previous night.

But i'm not here to talk about the lack of a decent crowd, i'm here to talk about the music, which on the whole was really well put together and played convincingly. The Big Pink as i've mentioned before, put out a great performance. With Furze's leather jacket and fantastic stage presence, the tag of 'shoegaze' can be applied to the sound but not the cultural descent of the band. The term originated from the same magazine that was putting on the show tonight, after what i believe was an NME journalist (correct me if i'm wrong) noted how many reverb drenched noise pop bands simply stood and motionlessly 'gazed' at their 'shoes' throughout their live shows. Furze and his now full band set-up did quite the opposite; they put on what can only be described a smoke-drenched 'rock show', with a huge and crushing wall of sound seeping over their scatty electro beats.

Bombay Bicycle Club are the band out of the four at the show who I am least familiar with, although i'm not entirely sure why this is. I've read about them and owned their album for months, its just when it comes down to it I don't find them nearly as interesting as the other bands on that night. I'd already missed the Drums, which was a shame, but putting a band on stage at 7.15 I find frankly a bit of an insult.

Now-veterans The Maccabees completed the night, and perfectly in keeping with the increasingly rowdy trend i've noticed for this band's followers, my standing position near the front I was instantly swept away from. I felt like i was at a teen-metal gig. Not nice, and uncalled for, especially from Maccabees fans, a band i actually find far more relaxed and far more intricate than any of the other bands present.

I think you'll find far more pleasure in these MP3s than I did in the typical Topman infested 15 year old crowd. As great as the bands are, having a nice atmosphere is just as important; but these days, what can you expect from the readership of NME? I've attached The Big Pink's Velvet, The Drum's I Felt Stupid, The New Maccabees collaboration with Roots Manuva, and finally the original-topping James Rutledge remix of BBC's fantastic Always Like This. One last thing, hope you like my somewhat blurred original photography up top.

The Drums - I Felt Stupid (MP3)
Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This (James Rutledge Remix) (MP3) 
The Big Pink - Velvet (MP3)
The Maccabees ft. Roots Manuva - Empty Vessels (MP3)

3 More To Watch - Islet, The Shimmer, Chapel Club

 picture courtesy of ShakerRecords

#1. Islet (Indie Rock/Math-Rock/Post-Punk)
The saying goes here as much as ever "you want what you can't have", and its definitely the curiousity described here that makes me as determined as ever to get hold of some online material about Islet, a band who's live show i've heard so much about. They've ended up gaining as much industry attention for their publicised 'shun' of the internet as they have for their music, exchanging their online promotion for wowing audiences in person. There's two main members and often two drummers to accompany, and although i've never had the pleasure of seeing them live - a couple of enthusiastic fans have gone about collecting all the information they can on this band @ thisisislet.com. Its on that blog that you're going to find about as much information as there is, including Islet's first ever BBC Cardiff session. The indie rock band includes members JT and Mark from Them Squirrels and Attack+Defend respectively, as well as Emma formerly from Victorian English Gentleman's Club.

  
#2. The Shimmer (Shoegaze/Psychedelic-Pop/Noise Pop)
London band The Shimmer make fast-paced dance/newgaze music with an Ian Curtis/MBV vocal dubbed low behind euphoric dance beats and a distinctively Dandy Warhols recording style. Ths result is a huge emalgamation of styles including psychedelia, dance, shoegaze and noise pop into music short, simple and extremely accessible. The Shimmer is a band you can put on in the background, on the dancefloor, in the car - anywhere. Pick up No Surprise At All below.

 The Shimmer - No Surprise At All (MP3)

#3. Chapel Club (Indie Rock/Alternative/Britrock)

Chapel Club are a post-punk band formed in 2008 in the shadow of St. Luke's Church, London. They sing songs of love, lust, anger and frustration beneath thunderous guitar work, intricate lead lines and reflective lyricism. "Oh Maybe I, should settle down into a quiet life, Or maybe I, should chance it all on a perfect night." They're currently unsigned, but with the clear echoes of contemporaries such as White Lies there to be heard within their music, its a matter of time, not a matter of further musical development, before these guys make it big to some degree. They've booked themselves up a huge UK Tour next month (match up your local venue via myspace) and currently have three tracks for streaming. You can pick up "O Maybe I" below.


Chapel Club - O Maybe I (MP3)

New Wild Beasts video "We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues"

As if to mark one month until Wild Beasts venture to Bournemouth, they've dropped a new video to "We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues." It features the band members floating around in a partially comatosed state, with a few disorientating close ups of a horse, drenched in light blue aquatic lighting. According to Domino Records, and inferred by anyone who cares deeply enough to listen to the lyrics, the song is a tale of "insatiable lust, full of twisted bawdiness and louche adventures." Quite how the video matches up remains a mystery to me, but it makes for an interesting watch. Not that it makes much difference, as i've already got my ticket, they've also extended their tour and confirmed support, dates for which are below.

Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues (MP3) (Buy Link Below)


17/02/2010 - MINNEAPOLIS, MN 7th Street Entry **
18/02/2010 - CHICAGO, IL Schubas **
19/02/2010 - CHICAGO, IL Schubas **
20/02/2010 - DETROIT, MI Pike Room **
22/02/2010 - TORONTO, Ontario Horseshoe Tavern **
24/02/2010 - BOSTON, MA Great Scott **
25/02/2010 - PHILADELPHIA, PA Kung Fu Necktie **
26/02/2010 - NEW YORK, NY Bowery Ballroom **
27/02/2010 - WASHINGTON, DC Black Cat **
28/02/2010 - BROOKLYN, NY Music Hall Of Williamsburg **
03/03/2010 - PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms *
04/03/2010 - LONDON KOKO* SOLD OUT
11/03/2010 - WARWICK Warwick Un *
12/03/2010 - BOURNMOUTH 60 Million Postcards *
13/03/2010 - LEICESTER Uni Queens Hall *
15/03/2010 - NORWICH Waterfront *
16/03/2010 - EXETER Phoenix *
18/03/2010 - LIVERPOOL Academy 2 *
19/03/2010 - NEWCASTLE Cluny * SOLD OUT
20/03/2010 - MANCHESTER Academy 2 *
22/03/2010 - LONDON KOKO w/Everything Everything + Esben And The Witch
25/03/2010 - GALWAY Roisin Dubh ***
26/03/2010 - CORK Cyprus Avenue ***
27/03/2010 - DUBLIN Academy ***
01/04/2010 - NANCY L'autre Canal
02/04/2010 - LYON Epicerie Moderne
03/04/2010 - MARSEILLE Cabaret Aletoire
04/04/2010 - GRENOBLE Le Ciel
06/04/2010 - LAUSANNE Le Romandie
07/04/2010 - ST GALLEN Theater Palace
08/04/2010 - MAYRHOFEN Snowbombing
09/04/2010 - BOLOGNE Locomotiv
10/04/2010 - ROME MIT Festival
11/04/2010 - ROME MIT Festival
12/04/2010 - MILAN Magnoli
13/04/2010 - MUNICH Kranhalle
15/04/2010 - PARIS Maroquinerie
16/04/2010 - BRUSSELS Botanique
17/04/2010 - COLOGNE Gebaude 9
19/04/2010 - HAMBURG Uebel and Gefarlich
20/04/2010 - BERLIN Lido
01/05/2010 - LEEDS ‘Live At Leeds’ Met Uni
22/05/2010 - GLASGOW ABC Stag & Dagger Festival
27/05/2010 - SPAIN Primavera Festival
28/05/2010 - SPAIN Primavera Festival
29/05/2010 - SPAIN Primavera Festival

* with Erland & The Carnival, and Lone Wolf
** with Still Life Still
*** with Villagers and Lone Wolf

Buy Two Dancers on Amazon.com

Chillwave, free EPs from MEMORYHOUSE + MillionYoung.

If you're anything close to a regular reader of TMW, you're going to be pretty familiar with our obsession with the chillwave/dreamwave movement that has emerged out of dreampop and surf music in the last couple of years or so. A week doesn't go by recently without a mention of bands like Toro y Moi (who's Causers of This is getting oh so close!), Golden Ages, Washed Out and the like, and for this reason amongst others, we couldn't help but share with you a couple of great free EPs from the inbox which epitomise what both this movement, and our enthusiasm is rooted in.

The first of these digital releases is by MemoryHouse, a Canadian musical duo consisting of Denise Nouvion and Evan Abeele, who started recording songs in early 2009, inspired by wintry mornings and the nostalgic onset of the seasons. With incredible maturity they darken out the ethereal soundwaves they create into something both airy and not quite seperated from the abstract moods which waft through their lyrics and instrumentation. The result is dreamy, spaced out wash-pop reminiscent of the paradoxical musical consistencies of a revamped Mercury Rev or a decontextualised Washed Out. Timeless and trippy, they set out to disorientate - and the listener is brought sharply back down to earth with contemplative lyricism, put together throughout last summer under the tributary moniker of German Composer Max Richter's seminal work, MemoryHouse.


DOWNLOAD MEMORYHOUSE - THE YEARS EP (MEDIAFIRE)
The second release i'd like to share with you is the work of Michael Diaz aka MillionYoung, who self-released his debut, the sun-drenched SunnDreamm EP in 2009 with the Pitchfork-featured track Weak Ends as single. His latest, the Be So True EP, follows suit in terms of sound and came out on January 19, 2010. Rather than singing about the seasons and emotional dwellings of the winter month's thoughts, MillionYoung seems a far more danceable character than the former; his remix of MemoryHouse transforms the ambient electronica arrangement into an ecstatic and pulsating dreampop/dance track, and you only have to take one look at his collection of upcoming shows to tell he's all for hipster dancefloor filling this summer. At times with vaguely Strokes-like vocal intensity, MillionYoung scatters dance beats amongst crispy acoustic recordings and hazily hypnotic samples. You can pick up his equally brilliant, if not better EP below, via his website.

And if full length EPs just aren't your thing, don't think we haven't catered for you. Pick up two MP3s and the remix below.

Download the SunnDreamm EP/Stream the Be So True EP via MillionYoung.com
MEMORYHOUSE - To The Lighthouse (MillionYoung remix) (MP3)
MEMORYHOUSE - Lately (Deuxieme) (MP3)
MillionYoung - Chlorophyll (MP3)

Introducing.. MiniBoone - Big Changes EP

(Rock/Indie Pop/Avant-Garde)

MiniBoone are a Brooklyn band who jumped out at me during my usual routine inbox sift a couple of weeks back with a friendly email (believe, me that's more than a lot of bands) and an enticing name drop of Phil Spector and Talking Heads. It was definitely this which led me to download their January 25th released EP 'Big Changes' which incidentally was out on Drug Front Records that very day. They play avant-garde indie pop music with a fairly standard set up, there's no synthesisers or crazy electronic sounds which accompany most of the bands i've introduced on here recently, instead MiniBoone work with guitar, bass, drums, keys with refreshing expertise. They are an incredibly tight band, who pack in not only a host of time and rhythm changes but also a great fun attitude, some really heartfelt delivery and Maccabees-esque instrumentals. 

I was directed by the band to their track Devil In Your Eyes, and cleared to post it, but now more than ever i urge you to get hold of the EP, because there's a lot more to this band than this single song. There's a lot of emotions and a lot of different moods, which the band schizophrenically cycle through from verse to verse, song to song, and section to section. A little bit of this seeps through on the lead track (listen at 1:03), where the upbeat and pop-ridden chorus subsides into an intense and far more serious second verse "I'm the friendly fire, i'm the one who sees the sickness in your eyes". You'll need to grab the EP to get the full gist of this, and i hope you do, but for now, enjoy the single available for download below.



MiniBoone - Devil In Your Eyes (MP3)

Buy the EP in Digital or Physical format via Bandcamp.