Have a listen to some of my favourite songs, from some albums that have really struck a chord.

Spotify Playlist

Little Dragon – Ritual Union, from Ritual Union

The first track from her third (?) album, starts as the second finished, quite (but not too) funky and very catchy

M83 – Wait, from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

I have to admit that I didn’t fall into Saturdays = Youth back in 2008, but I fucking love this album.

This song confirms that you can have a simple yet epic structure without being boring.

Michicant – Bon Iver, from Bon Iver

It’s just obviously a lovely song, as can be said for 9 out of the 10 songs on Bon Iver

It’s Real – Real Estate, from Days

Real Estate are new to me, and to be lazy I could say could be placed near The Shins in terms of their sound.

Feels like I listened to the album a couple of months too late (as the temperature has dropped a few degrees)

Goodbye (with Soap & Skin) – Apparat, from The Devil’s Walk

I’ve been a fan of Apparat for a while now, and this album perhaps surprised me at how pop it could be.

This song was used in the series finale to season 4 of Breaking Bad, so it now has the bonus of reminding me of Gus walking towards a man who communicates via a bell in an Old People’s home

Putting The Dog To Sleep – The Antlers, from Burst Apart

I think I first listened this album because of a tweet from Sean @DrownedinSound.

The album is full of simple meloncholy, perfectly paced.

Final Form – Lianne La Havas, from Lost & Found

I saw Lianne La Havas on Later… a few weeks back, and aside from being stunning, I rewatched her performance of Age four or five times. I loved her performance and guitar style.

Horses Jumping – Slow Club, from Paradise

One of those bands that it is hard to believe aren’t more popular. I liked their debut ‘Yeah, So’, but I love Paradise. I’m basically cheating by putting Horses Jumping on this playlist, as it has a cheeky bonus song, but it’s a perfect closer.

I went to see Sufjan Stevens on Thursday at the Manchester Apollo. He hasn’t played in the UK for about 5 years, and I didn’t catch him the last time he was here. I had waited for that time for him to announce a new tour. It was amazing…

He started with Seven Swans. It was amazing. The guy is just amazing.

Naturally he played a lot of The Age of Adz, and there were countless highlights. Incredible Soul really is something to see live.

I, on the other hand, have been recording quite slowly. I’m currently having to rest my stage piano on my bed to record in the evenings, as I don’t have enough floor space. However, I am getting closer to finishing a couple of EPs/albums.

The great news is that I’ve been listening to some great new albums, and have put together a short playlist. A few artists I listen to haven’t put their latest albums on Spotify (I’m looking at you Sufjan, Wild Beasts), but these are all tunes.

Spotify Playlist

1. Lykke Li – Love Out of Lust
2. Metronomy – Everything Goes My Way
3. Gruff Rhys – Space Dust #2
4. Tune-Yards – Powa
5. Wild Beasts – Albatross
6. James Blake – To Care (Like You)
7. Metronomy – The Bay
8. TV on the Radio – Second Song
9. Cut Copy – Take Me Over
10. James Blake – Unluck

I’m fully aware I’ve got 2 Metronomy and James Blake songs on there, but to be honest I have been listening to those two albums and Tune-Yards so, so much.

Anywhoo, give it a listen.
Your Turn by tootetoote

In other news I saw The National at Warwick Arts Centre recently,which was exactly what I was after. I think Matt Berninger is very interesting to watch, and literally has the coolest voice.

I still wish that they played Lemonworld though.

It’s funny how you sometimes hear a song at a concert/gig that you’ve heard dozens of times before, but it suddenly clicks when you hear it live.

Happened with Slow Song. I’m a sucker for romantic lyrics.

You know I dreamed about you for twenty-nine years before I saw you

Last night I saw the band Villagers at The Glee Club in Birmingham. It was an outstanding set from some very talented folk.

A couple of months back I bumped into a friend in town and ended up discussing Grizzly Bear, both agreeing that they were something pretty special. He then said how great they were live…I found out they had played at Warwick Arts Centre with Beach House supporting about two weeks prior, without my knowledge. In a list in my head there are a couple of bands/artists that I ‘need’ to see live before I/they die/recluse. Grizzly Bear are on this list, as is Sufjan Stevens amongst others. I am sure that the list will grow. When this happened I decided that I should go to all the gigs I realistically can for bands that I like, and I would keep an eye on who was playing where. I really regret it when I do miss a great act, so when I saw Villagers were playing I reserved a couple of tickets without hesitation.

The Glee Club is a strange yet great place to see and hear music. I have only seen comedy there before and they have a pretty stringent no-heckle policy. The attitude was the same for the gig. You get there by 8:15 or you don’t get in, you will listen to the support, you then get a break and go and smoke if that’s your sort of thing, then you watch the main event. The audience were silent (apart from applause naturally), which Conor himself repeatedly commented on. I can completely imagine after playing normal rooms, no matter how courteous the audience are, it is nice to be given so much respect. They did say we could dance to one number, but the sit-down format isn’t dance friendly, and to be honest I’m sure that my dancing skills are up to much anyway. I’m sure that there are similar venues everywhere, in fact there are a couple in Coventry such as Taylor John’s House.

The song above was the final song in the encore (although this recording isn’t from last night). It perfectly mixes a great simple melody in a bare mix. Sometimes five musicians can play over each other, rather than with each other, which I’ve certainly been guilty of.

We gave a standing ovation at the end. We did have an unfair advantage with this though as I’d argue it’s impossible to give a true standing ovation if you have been standing for the preceding 2 hours. Nonetheless,  I think this meant that everyone there thought the same. I’m not so great a fan of forcing Top 5 lists, but this was one of those stand out gigs for me.

Found out today that they are also playing Hop Farm festival, which is a great surprise (although I should probably actually read up on who is playing that!). I would have happily sat through the gig straight after and not regretted it for a second. 10/10

(this wasn’t actually meant to be a review and I am not a reviewer, but it was too good not to write about)

In other news, there have been loads of great albums released so far in 2010. I’ve put some personal favourite songs from albums currently getting a lot of play on my Spotify/phone: -

• Lemonworld from ‘High Violet’ by The National
• Becoming a Jackal from ‘Becoming a Jackal by Villagers
• Zebra from ‘Teen Dream’ by Beach House
• O.N.E from ‘ODD BLOOD’ by Yeasayer
• I Think Ur A Contra from ‘Contra’ by Vampire Weekend
• World Sick from ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’ by Broken Social Scene
• You Wanted A Hit from ‘This Is Happening’ by LCD Soundsystem
• White Flag from ‘Plastic Beach’ by Gorillaz
• Percussion Gun from ‘It’s Frightening’ by White Rabbits
• Odessa from ‘Swim’ by Odessa
• Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) by ‘I Speak Because I Can’ by Laura Marling

For added ease – Here’s a Spotify link with my all the above tracks together.

I’m off to see Villagers at The Glee Club tomorrow night. Pretty excited, I’m very impressed with the new album.

Ta,
Sam

When I’m recording I find it difficult to keep things simple. I like layers and they are sometimes good to have.
I watched Jools Holland last night and saw Villagers perform The Meaning of the Ritual. It was stunning. Simple and stunning.

On a partially related note (although not similar to the above song) I recorded a bare bones version of ‘Moving Furniture’ in my hallway. I hope you like it. x

Every now and then, I have a catch-up session with an old love. Recently it’s been Talking Heads, which reminded me of a David Byrne solo song that I loved. It’s pretty special. I remember hearing this song for the first time on Jools Holland when I was 18 and being taken away by the different instrumentation that he was using.

Lots of staccato, but these fit perfectly alongside Byrne’s soft vocals. It sounds to me like an out-take from a David Lynch directed West Side Story. Not sure why.

It’s very beautiful, but nicely understated. I’m going to make my way through her back catalogue, but for now this album is ideal. It’s not just a stopgap, but a nice unexpected find. Great stuff!

To keep things exciting, I’m just listing the albums I listened to the most in 2009, that have been released in 2009.

Honourable mentions go to Department of Eagles for In Ear Park, which has probably been my most played album of the year, but was released in late 08′, as was We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed by Los Campesinos! Those were the days.

So…Get ready for what will in all likeliness be a condensed version of the Pitchfork Top 50. Bollocks to originality.

Various Artists – Dark Was The Night

This may be on this list because it’s been on my Blackberry amongst only a couple of other albums so I’ve listened to it again and again in the car, but it is an outstanding compilation full of bands I adore. I bought it for the Sufjan Stevens version of You Are The Blood, but it also introduced me to The Dirty Projectors (would you believe), with one of the highlights of the album being Knotty Piny with David Byrne.

The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Speaking of which, I downloaded Bitte Orca, which for me was the album of the year. I love listening to music that I just couldn’t comprehend making myself, which is what this album is to me.. For all the unusual time signatures and alternative structures, it has stunning melodies.

St. Vincent – Actor

Annie Clark makes interesting music.  I imagine she has a head full of ideas and might record several drastically different versions of each song. There’s a great live session on YouTube of her singing a version of ‘Actor Out of Work’ with only an acoustic guitar. She makes what was an aggressive song into something more whimsical. Her voice is beautiful, her guitar playing is harsh, the result is great.

The Mountain Goats – Life of the World to Come
I first heard The Mountain Goats with ‘Get Lonely’ in 2006, but they didn’t click for me until I listened to ‘Heretic Pride’ and ‘Life of the World to Come’, both in 2009. Ezekiel 7 is a special song.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

(I had to Google the album title spelling)
What a talented bunch these guys are. This album felt more immediate to me than Yellow House, and has spent more time on my earphones because of it. There’s something personal in the way it sounds, which I always like. Basically Daniel Rossen is the man.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

This album didn’t click for me as quickly as ‘Feels’, which I love. That was, until I saw their set at The Park at Glastonbury 2009. I know ‘My Girls’ has been lauded, but it, and their set, was a festival highlight at Glastonbury. After hearing the songs in the dark, with a light show, amongst people dancing questionably to uncommon time-signatures, it made much more sense to me.

I played my first solo gig in a while last Monday with Atlum Schema in Leamington Spa.

Got there quite early so had time to indulge in the £2.99 pasta and garlic bread (CHEAP!).
The above picture shows Andy (Atlum Schema) enjoying his Cauliflower Cheese, which he was very excited about.

It was a nice night, and apart from my Mac falling out with Logic, it seemed to go OK. Good stuff.

Had a short conversation at the end with Boat to Row about Joanna Newsom, which is always a good thing….speaking of which, she’s spending quite a bit of time modelling at the moment?! I want more songs please.

Sam

So I have moved now and have a nice new flat somewhere near the centre Birmingham. It’s been raining a lot, even for England, but it’s all good.

Went to Fireworks for the first time since I was about 15 yesterday. It was great though, we had fireworks, pork baps, a ride that takes you upside down, and of course rain.

The image is a beautiful screenshot of the view from my bedroom.
If I’d have turned the camera around you would have seen a lot of boxes.

Sam.

Shelley Duvall – He Needs Me

Think I’m going to cover this song at the gig on the 16th at the Jug and Jester, Leamington. I saw Popeye when I was at 8 and can’t remember it, but this song stood out on the Punch-Drunk Love soundtrack (albeit with Jon Brion’s handiwork). I love it.

Also have a real urge to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I lived in Bangor, North Wales for 3 years, technically a city, but not quite London.
It will be a nice change I guess. I might miss the fields…

My room is full of boxes. My guitars and keyboards are in boxes. My room is a collection of boxes.
I am looking forward to making a new home.

Anyway, after about 30 minutes of trying to work out how to increase my max upload size on this site I think I’m going to bed.

If you haven’t seen it, check out the Spike Jonze & Kanye West short film. It’s quite fruity! x

Toote Toote – Things I thought but did not say by tootetoote