Retreat! Festival 2009

“A celebration of the local musical community”

This is the essential description of Retreat!, now in its 2^nd year. I quote Bartholomew Owl, the cofounder of this most rustic and simple of music festivals alongside Emily Roff back in summer 2008, as a reaction to the complete dearth of local music in the wider programme of the Edinburgh festival. Retreat! is different this time round though. Rather than being a month long affair featuring a multitude of acts spread across 31 days, today we have a multitude of bands spread across 12 hours.

“This is the product of a certain group of musicians, plus a much larger audience plus a realisation that we could do this without any money, any promotion or input from the mainstream music industry” (Rob St John)

Originally Retreat! was conceived of as a reaction to the lack of Edinburgh representation in the fringe music programme, hence the month long staging of gigs as a reprieve from the festival’s oppressive presence. As Emily puts it though, “this year that just isn’t the case, there’s loads of stuff going on from Edinburgh, so we don’t feel as if we’re working against it”. From “Broken Records headline show, Unicorn Kid and Young Fathers at Cab Vol and Meursault opening for Frightened Rabbit, there’s a lot more going on” adds Bart. That doesn’t mean they’re resting on their laurels though, safe in the knowledge that a few acts have made it onto the bigger stage. Retreat! 2009 was a day that attracted scores of fans, well-wishers and curious Udderbelly wanderers to the gentle surroundings of the old Bristo Church on Forest Road.

Although the day began at the more gentle hour of 11 o’clock, this reviewer was not in residence until closer to 4, therefore missing out on the warped loops of Wounded Knee, the pastoral baritone of Tissø Lake and the ukulele pop joy of Allo, Darlin’ amongst others. Arriving just in time to catch the beginning of anti-folk exemplar Withered Hand’s set, I set up camp towards the back of the church, right by the tea and toast stand. Added to the bunting, handmade signs, and tangible sense of community, Retreat! could be mistaken for some sort of village fete. The difference is of course the range of musical talent on show. Dan Wilson and his band quickly built up a warm rapport with the audience through their homespun tales of honesty and innocence. Never has the term ‘endearingly ramshackle’ been more appropriate than for tracks such as ‘No Cigarettes’ and ‘I Am Nothing’. I caught up with Dan afterwards to chat about Retreat! and the surge of underground music in Edinburgh.

“It’s quite surprising really, it’s more popular than I expected! .. a lot of bands are now getting the exposure they need, something that wasn’t really there before. It doesn’t feel as if this current surge is transient either”

Edinburgh has often suffered in comparison to its musical big brother, Glasgow, but perhaps this is an advantage for the capital?

“In Glasgow, a lot of bands have this problem of a trajectory already being laid out for them, because the city has a history of producing successful bands. I guess in Edinburgh we don’t really have that, so the pressure is off and there’s less urgency.

A misconception has existed for too long that Edinburgh’s homegrown music scene was rather threadbare, especially in comparison to its bigger cousin in the West. What Retreat! has done, along with the strong collection of gig nights that go on throughout the year (Trampoline, Tracer Trails, The Gentle Invasion, Limbo and This is Music) is to provide representation and opportunities for the bands that were perhaps finding it difficult to get gigs elsewhere. The DIY ethic that is so prevalent allows all the pressure to be taken away, and thus bands are putting on gigs themselves and getting recognition without the need for the bureaucracy of managers, promoters and record labels. Events like Retreat! cement the idea that all you need is a guitar, a PA and some songs to put on a cracking show. With Withered Hand’s debut LP ‘Good News’ coming out next month on Edinburgh label SL, it’s an underscoring of the strength of the scene.

Later on in the day, Leith based, but Lancashire raised, ambient folk master Rob St John takes to the stage. Having gained much praise of late for his ‘Like Alchemy’ EP, and strengthening his position as Edinburgh’s premier folk outfit (in the absence of ‘on hiatus’ Eagleowl) with a number of stirring new tracks, it’s perhaps unfortunate that this is to be his last gig for some time, due to taking up ecological studies down South. ‘The Shipping Forecast’ is a tremendously wistful pop song, that really lets Rob’s vocals come to the fore, with the slightest hint of a falsetto. Finale ‘The Sargasso Sea’ is a frenetic beast of a rock track over which the muse of Neil Young looms. It’s a startling finish to Rob’s set, which at one time was known for being the epitome of low key.

“The community allows people to do what they want, because even if you’re good and a little leftfield, you might struggle to find an audience in a more industry driven setup. And that hinders you because you’re always struggling or striving to be a little more mainstream. Shows like today where you just put some bands on and it’s free, and 200 people turn up, it just cements this undercurrent of things going on in Edinburgh year round”

But isn’t it the case that this sort of event, and these kind of bands will struggle to generate bigger success, or is that something they would even desire in the first place? Is the idea of making money from music at odds with the DIY/locally reared philosophy?

“No-one wants to lose money! I wonder if, even as DIY as you are, you never want to make a loss. There are scales of making money though, and some people want to be a superstar and some people want just to be able to buy a pint at the end of the evening!”

And therein lies the rub, it’s about making music for enjoyment, for art, to earn a living but not necessarily to become attached to the international carthorse that is the ‘Music Industry’. “I think the downturn in the music industry has helped us really”, as Dan Withered Hand put it. It seems that Retreat! has taken on another role; as recession relief!

Bringing down the curtain on the festival for me were Meursault as alas I had to miss a now legendary moment involving the closing act ‘The Leg’, a face mask, and projectile vomit. Punk rock not folk rock! The Edinburgh ‘folktronica’ outfit have been making waves since the release of debut album ‘Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues’, and have since added another 2 members to the original 4 piece. An electric guitarist with a plethora of pedals joins the banjo, ukulele, drums, acoustic guitar and electronics that is beginning to make their stage show look like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. A moving version of the solo ukulele track ‘Sleet’ is a highlight, alongside their terrific new material, all omnichords and thundering drums.

Speaking to frontman Neil Pennycook earlier in the day, he reaffirmed the points made by Rob St John and Dan Wilson.

“Bands are priced out of studios, rehearsal spaces. Being in a band is really fucking expensive! If you’ve got limited means, you can really narrow in on what you’ve got, even if it’s a battered old acoustic guitar and a snare drum. If we had too much access to rehearsal space it would absolutely destroy us! I’ll never record in a studio because I think it would be the end of me. I’m fine with my old Applemac, as battered and as horrible as it is, I get on with it and I think that’s a big part of it, recording our own music and putting on our own gigs, taking a little bit of the power away from the mainstream industry.”

The theme of DIY is constantly recurring throughout the Retreat! philosophy. All you need is enthusiasm, passion for local music and heaps of goodwill and you can carry that forth into staging gigs and helping to get local music heard on a wider scale. Retreat! was a roaring success, and during this most famous and chaotic of festivals, that is no mean feat.

“Bart and Emily putting on Retreat! is only going to be a good thing, it sounds corny as hell but it’s a ‘by musicians, for musicians’ theme. We just want as many people to hear this music as possible, that’s my main drive at the moment; to get out, get heard”

The Vaselines, Malcolm Middleton and Aidan John Moffat @ the Oran Mor

Holy moly it's been a while. I blame this mostly on the laptop problems mentioned in the last post. However since then I have rectified said problem which means I can once again keep you all updated with musical happenings that take my fancy. As well as staying up far too late amusing myself with lolcats. Fuck yeah.

Right, well my return article is going to be about a gig I headed along to last Friday night, which was in fact the first gig I've been to in AN AGE. It's a good job I frequent one of my local pubs, The Islay, a fair amount, or else I wouldn't have seen the poster for this cracking event. Titled 'Stripped Back For Malawi', this was a charity gig in raise funds for an Orphanage in Malawi, where two Scottish nurses and many underpaid and overworked nurses based in the country itself are doing sterling work for many disadvanted children. I won't get into that too deeply though because I'll just trip over words and cliches and end up sounding like a terrible Red Nose Day advert. Music is what I can write about though and let me tell you this was some show.

Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap fame (whose exploits I encountered in Nice & Sleazy's a while back) took the stage and proceeded to run through a number of his equisite pieces of Scottish poetry and prose accompanied by nothing more than a drum machine and a mystery keyboard type instrument which I wish I knew more about. "Speaking of children, this song is called 'Cunts'" said the heavily bearded hero as he knocked out one of I Can Hear Your Heart's more oath filled moments. It was a short but sweet set and the crowd reacted warmly to Moffat's frank ditties. Great stuff. Former 'Strap colleague Middleton followed, and he was fantastic when playing the acoustic led gems 'A Brighter Beat', 'We're All Going To Die' and 'Blue Plastic Bags'. A drum machine and some backing beats joined in for the later tracks and these were slightly poorer, but it did sound like perhaps Malcolm was only just working these arrangements out.

Then was the guest appearance of Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub fame, a band who I've never quite got round to listening to, but on the basis of just 3 songs played I have a feeling I'm going to find this band essential soon enough. The first track was a cover of a georgeous song called 'Oh Caroline' by the legendary Robert Wyatt but the 2nd and 3rd were old and brand new Fanclub songs, both sweet and melodic in a perfect way. Finishing up the evening were the legendary Vaselines, who I suppose most people will of heard of indirectly owing to the fact they were Kurt Cobain's favourite band and Nirvana covered a couple of their songs. Most prominently 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam' which the duo opened with tonight. Classic pop cuts such as 'Son Of A Gun' and 'Molly's Lips' are just brilliant and like Teenage Fanclub it's about time I really listened to more of this band - not there's much to be going on with in the Vaselines' case!

The rest of the evening proceeded with me getting hilariously drunk and watching an episode of The Inbetweeners, which was rather awesome. Hinterland this week, and I should hopefully have a little piece about the Friday night up later this week - after my show-stopping live performance with the Futuristic Retro Champions of course! Yep...

Bred For Skills & Magic - Copy Haho

My own laptop is unusable. The mains adaptor is not being recognised by the laptop and hence, I cannot even turn the damn thing on let alone type some rambling musical bollocks. Therefore, I have been forced into hijacking my dear flatmate's slab of technology whilst he is off out. Needs must. Oh hell! There he is, back. I'll just use it a little longer. Might have to shell out £19 on a new adaptor which is a tad gash but since I accidentally signed up to, and paid for, Amazon Prime at least it will be here swiftly.

This long overdue post is about the fabulous debut EP from Stonehaven's finest, Copy Haho. The lads have been floating about the Scottish music landscape for a few years now and following a couple of singles released through that old chestnut I Fly Spitfires records and Teenage Lust, BFSAM (Yes, I've abbreviated it, I'm sorry) is brought to us by Big Scary Monsters. I blogged a little while ago about seeing them live and their energy in this capacity is not lost in recorded form. Lead track Pulling Push Ups positively rockets out of the speakers coupling thrilling guitars hooks with a cutting critique of excessive ambition and record company sycophants. This Retro Decade however, is edging towards being my favourite track, the initial riff being a particular joy. Bad Blood would appear to be the lads' shot at oh! A ballad! A lacadaisical lo-fi treat, comparisons to Pavement are inevitable, the muttered lyrics and slowcoach solo are brilliant.

What I particularly love about Copy Haho is the snippets of silence, the guitar clicks and drum cracks where it feels like one instrument is just catching up with the other. The musicianship is relaxed and sounds totally unforced even if the riffs and chords are perfectly played. It's un-rigorous. If such a word exists. It does now. As finale The Last Dash fades into a sumptuously catchy outro, the promise of Copy Haho over these past few years has certainly been fulfilled. Someone once told me they thought they were possibly the best songwriters in Scotland, if only they dedicated more time to the band. Although that may appear at odds with Pulling Push Ups and the general ethos of Copy Haho, it seems they're coming round to the idea.

PS. The production quality is bloody well great too. And you can buy this fine release HERE, go go go. Or iTunes, I am led to believe.

Bradley Hathaway - A Mouth Full Of Dust

I've been meaning to write up this review for a while now, but a combination of my own laziness and working full time has curtailed it. Mostly the former, really. I heard about this lad through Rob St. John who was supposed to be supporting him at a recent Edinburgh gig, but as it turned out, Hathaway was deported on arrival in the UK - am I correct Rob? Described as being "six strings and the truth" by Rob, an immediately worrying proposition. But this is so much more than Dashboard Confessional style gash.

Firstly, I should say that the boy is a proper poet. Like, he has collections out and stuff. Naturally then, the lyrics are to the fore on this record and, crucially, they're backed with some thunderous instrumentation, as well as the obligatory softly spoken acoustic numbers. In particular the screaming opening track 'Covered In The Blood', and with a title like that you're pretty much setting out your stall with banners and sirens aren't you. The centrepiece however is the suitably epic 'Samual' which opens with a monologue about the song's namesake before breaking into a slow building monster. This stunning track reaches a zenith with the fantastic lyric "my love is a raisin, and god's is a pumpkin or a canteloupe or a watermelon or a really big something.. AND I WANNA EAT IT!!" before the band lays waste to the scene. It's Dylan at his most visceral and there's something of the wandering thoughts of messers Berman and Callaghan in the lyrics. I'm not normally into overtly religious sentiments but as with Sufan Stevens, if the music is good enough and the lyrics interesting enough then it really doesn't matter. Bland worship music this is not. In fact it's more akin to the god-bothering antics of Nick Cave.

The gentle 'Look Up' is another highlight, whilst the affecting 'Mary' is a complemented with some well scored strings. Not sickly, not soaring, but subtle enough to bring a melancholy edge to the track. There's an underlying sentiment of disillusionment on this record, and it's complented with some delightful musical touches, dashes of piano here and there, and pleasant little banjo plucking emerging in parts. But when the song demands a full on cathartic release to tie in with the lyrical sentiment then Hathaway isn't afraid to let loose the electric guitar and cymbals.

Broken Records

Greetings people. It's been over a week since I wrote anything which is pretty damned shocking considering I only just started this thing and haven't yet time to become disillusioned with the whole blogging affair. But I have quite a few things I want to write about and I'll start with a cracking gig I went to last night, and a great little EP I picked up as a result of attending.

The band were Broken Records (who have been written about far more extensively and thoroughly by many other bloggers and publications so that it is hardly worth me giving a lenghty discourse about the lads, but..) and the show was at the Oran Mor. Another one of The Mill gigs which I spoke about in my first proper post. I attended this gig with my good pal Chris who was black affronted by the lack of any other beverage on offer at the bar. No Guinness! This is shite. The band were soon up on stage though, and this was quickly forgotten as they launched into the first tune to a sizable crowd (easily the biggest I've seen at a Mill gig) who were disappointingly lucklustre I felt.

As I had expected, the set was absolutely great, with a particular stand out being a song played, I believe, 4th which I did not recognise. I expect it is a track from the upcoming album, seeing as the lads have been recording their debut for 4AD records down in Wales. As a quick aside, their signing to 4AD is quite simply wonderful news, and such a boost for Edinburgh music and even Scottish independent music in general. I wish them all the luck in the world and am genuinely excited about hearing said LP. Back to the gig; rollicking versions of 'If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It' and 'If Eilert Lovborg Wrote A Song' - which to me will always be 'The Russian Song', after I first heard it on the T Break 2007 CD - were dispatched to head-nodding, toe-tapping joy. Broken Records are a joy to behold live and the tones eminating from Rory and Arne's string parts are glorious, just glorious. Such a perfect mesh of instruments and styles. Concluding with a typically soaring rendition of 'Slow Parade', it left me looking forward to the future gigs where there will be enough tunes for hour long sets. And encores.

I purchased after a 5 track EP which Rory charmingly described as being a "collection of sea shanties". Or perhaps it's "Shantys". But it is so much more than a casually thrown together collection. And I'm sure it was never intended as such. For one thing, the production is absolutely excellent, and the instrumentation is truly rich sounding. 'Out On The Water' is a track I've heard before on the Toad Sessions, and its lovestruck beauty comes across fantastically on this version. My instant favourite though is 'The Crumbling Wall', a really striking gem of a song with the drums really grabbing my attention alongside anxious guitar and strings parts. All praise, I hope it sounds like it!

If I could work out how the hell to post songs for download I would probably put up a couple. But I don't have a clue so I can't. Maybe I need a proper server. I should really ask a more experienced blogger. Roll on Sunday however - Eagleowl and Rob St. John at the Captain's Rest.

Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP

Having been a latecomer to the ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ clamour, I feel I can still approach this record with some sense of objectivity. Of Justin Vernon’s debut LP I can honestly say that I have not completed a full listening of the record on a great number of occasions. Not because I dislike it, dear me no, much like everyone else I believe it to be one of the finest albums of 2008, and a beautiful addition to the catalogue of emotive, introspective, bleeding heart lo-fi albums that already exist. I’ve come to believe it is more because it is hard to be in the right mood to listen to it. It almost always leaves me with a sense of wistful melancholy, if not all out depression (though ‘depressing’ much rarely does that, in fact I find it to be quite the opposite), and due to the intense nature of the music, it feels a little odd and intrusive to play it in the living room whilst going about other things. In other words, it is an archetypical headphones record.

Blood Bank, the new EP, then. In short, the best way to think of this is as an add-on to For Emma. In a similar way, this is to For Emma, what the Sun Giant EP is to the Fleet Foxes LP. The title track and Beach Baby bear many of the hallmarks of a Vernon song, the hushed vocals and falsetto wails matching the softly strummed acoustic guitar. It has those gently cascading chords and lyrics that effortlessly evoke cold nights and warm fires and well, michty me, even if you lived in Hawaii I think you’d sense it. I think the latter is probably my favourite on the EP, utilising as it does the humming sound of a downtuned guitar. A resonator I think; a tone most clearly heard on Skinny Love from For Emma.

Babys and Woods, the final two tracks, are a mild departure. Woods, in particular, is rather unexpected. It builds up layers of a cappella vocals distorted through a vocoder, creating a sort of cacophonous choir of Vernons. It’s highly evocative, and probably the most challenging thing Bon Iver has produced to date. The production is also of such a quality that it is truly easy to place yourself at the moment of recording; as if you were sitting across the studio from Vernon (or in the case of Woods I see some sort of cave). A worthy stepping stone from For Emma, Forever Ago, Blood Bank suggests that Vernon hasn’t run out of ideas just yet, and that it’s time to look past the romanticized tale of the broken hearted man in the mountain cabin.

Boycotts

My good pal Harry of the mighty Futuristic Retro Champions (who should be the subject of an article here sometime soon) yesterday pointed me in the direction of a rather cracking Glasgow band called Boycotts. Having made their acquaintance at a music industry event he described as useless in many ways, it was at least beneficial for the mutual swapping of music between the 2 bands.

I'm already in love with Boycotts. The sparkling combination of punchy riffs and female vocals brings, rather lazily, Life Without Buildings to mind, who were bestowed with the glorious talents of Sue Tompkins on vocals. Boycotts Myspace informs me that Stina Twee is the voice providing these ideal notes, ably backed by the cracking sounding guitar of Josef K (more Scottish indie love!) and a like pure dead tight and mega rhythm section from the excellently named Hardcore Dave on bass and Dragon on drums.

Even more fantastically, if you e-mail the band, they'll send you the 3 tracks currently on Myspace for free! Spiffing. Plenty gigs upcoming too, so if you fancy the Captain's Rest gig, I'll be there.

And by the way, follow that link to the Retro Champs Myspace and listen to You Make My Heart. Seriously, what a tune. Good work people. Singalong diamond.

Dance with me Malcolm, dance!

Recently I ticked off a box on my Glasgow to-do that was long overdue. To attend a gig at King Tut’s. I know. Probably should’ve been before now. To business though, and the bands taking the burden of my terrific expectation were Copy Haho, Pulled Apart By Horses and Sky Larkin and it duly turned into a night memorable for a number of reasons. It began with the Haho boys. Since moving westwards I like to think I’ve become reasonably good friends with these fine fellows, mostly because I provide Joe with caramel shortcake in Peckham’s. I’m also a huge fan of their wonderful pop music and after I was informed by Edinburgh flyering legend Jim of the top notch sound quality at Tut’s I was suitably excited about hearing such instant classics as You Are My Coal Mine, Cutting Out The Bad and new banger Pulling Push Ups (Apologies to Joe, this is all a bit glowing isn’t it?). I probably needn’t tell you it was brilliant, by the end of the set even the bar staff had left their station to peer round the corner toward the stage. Their debut EP is out shortly on the impeccable Big Scary Monsters and the first 50 preorders get a poster which is allegedly shit but I’m sure quite marvellous.

Pulled Apart By Horses, I was led to believe by HP, the other half of mighty Edinburgh night This Is Music along with the aforementioned legend Jim, would “bring the rock”. And they did. In fact it was a veritable feast of 'the rock'. A quite preposterous live experience, all the hallmarks of screaming vocals, thrashing limbs and stage dives, speaker scaling and thundering riffage were present and correct. Occupying the same ground so well trodden by Death From Above 1979 and fellow Leeds thrash types, them of the journalist’s punctuation bane, ¡Forward, Russia! (yes I copied and pasted that) doesn’t really help them, for outside of their live experience it all sounds a bit tired. But I suppose they would likely argue that live is really where their musical heart lies. They do have some mean RAGE style riffs though, and you can’t argue with that.

Finally were Sky Larkin and for the life of me I just can’t quite grasp get the fuss about this band. And in saying that I feel almost disgraceful and sullied, because they’re clearly quite lovely folk and for a lot of people they are the proverbial bee’s knee’s. I remember seeing them supporting Los Campesinos! way back in 2007 at the Capitol in Glasgow and leaving with a badge and being happy about this, so there must be something I enjoyed. I’ll need to have another listen to the recorded material I reckon, and no doubt when the album emerges shortly on Wichita, it’ll be snapped up for absorption.

Afterwards, there was some discussion about a semi-mythical Bloc Party (the Wichita labelmates of Sky Larkin were over at the somewhat more cavernous Carling Academy) afterparty but this indie wet-dream never materialised and thus Nice & Sleazy’s was the foremost option. As it turned out however, this was a truly wise decision because who should we spot in said bar but Arab Strap themselves, Malcolm Middleton and Aiden John Moffat. Not that I spoke to them, god no. How terrifying a prospect that would be. Upon moving next door to the mighty Box we again encountered the Scottish indie legends, who were by now heartily pissed and having a riotous time. The finale to this was observing Middleton having a good dance and then falling flat on his back. I take this memory to the grave. Great stuff. Give me that over a trendy, strutting über-indie afterparty anytime.

Mistakes, Miller and Mitchell Museum

The dubious honour of being the subject of my first proper article goes to Glaswegian lads Mitchell Museum. The story behind how I came to discover their music is a bit odd. A bass playing chap, who I met shortly after moving through to Glasgow, informed me he had a band, and from that moment on I received plenty texts about gigs and such like. It is to my shame that I never properly checked out who his band were (not even their name! Disgrace, oh disgrace) and what they did, until I followed a link from Song, By Toad on Mitchell Museum- about whom I had heard good things - and peering at the thumbnail I recognised one bass playing chap. Whoops. That would be them then.

Shortly after, another text is received, about another gig upcoming. Therefore, with a combination of guilt about not having seen a friend’s band and the knowledge that Mitchell Museum were somewhat promising, I trotted along to the Mill at the Oran Mor to make amends. First things first, why oh why did it have to be Miller. Bloody Miller. The shiteyist of the shiteyist of lagers. Out of a can it is vom-worthy, whilst out of a bottle it is only marginally better, at least being tolerable enough not to end up regurgitated on the floor. On the other hand, they are doing a decent thing by putting on all these fledgling, and mostly unsigned, Scottish bands for free. However cynically it can be viewed, in my opinion the benefit of the doubt is theirs. Basically, let’s just take it at face value. Good music for free and an excellent platform for unsigned bands to get their music ‘out there’.

So, to the music, and supporting the Mitchell Museum boys were an outfit called The ID Parade. A bit up and down to be honest with a few decent touches and a guitarist/backing vocalist who could “really wail” as a nice chap next to me put it. Band members were highly disparate from the trendy lead singer to the bear like guitarist who appeared to be my more musically able alter ego. The tunes didn’t seem to know quite what they wanted to be either, ranging from almost gospel rock to traditional psychedelic Stone Roses freak outs. Anyway, the point is, I’ve seen worse. Worth checking out live, certainly entertaining at least.

Mitchell Museum on the other hand, form a very tight unit and this is the first of many contradictions. All positive I should add. Sadly I’ll sound like a sad indie snob here but the music would come across to many ears wildly bizarre and without focus. The lyrics are unusual and unexpected, the music whirls between the instruments over the top of fantastic vocal melodies. But they’re direct too. One of those bands that land in the niche of pop gold that results from being experimental whilst holding fast to the roots of a good tune. Namely, it's catchy. There are hints of Wolf Parade and an obvious touchstone would be the Flaming Lips, but of course that’s just lazy journalism and very rarely to do such comparisons hit the spot. And they’re named after a building that was founded by money donated by my great-great-great-great-great-great (give or take a couple) Uncle. I’m practically their benefactor, and surely heir to a large amount of reference books?! I’ll need to look into this.

Initial Thoughts

As if there weren’t enough blogs out there, and in particular musically orientated ones, I’ve gone and thrown my oar in with this little venture. Greetings then, and welcome to the shiny new blog of my good self, Fergus.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, this will be primarily a medium for me to ramble on about bands, tunes, guitars, that cracking drum rhythm on track 4, the chunky synth featured on track 9 and the emotive lyrics on the closing number. Therefore, if you’re not really into music, it might not really be your, how you say, ‘bag’. On the other hand, because I simply don’t buy enough new music or take the time to really immerse myself in fresh releases, there will be plenty of retrospective reviews andponderings. In other words, it’ll be music that is new to me, if not new to you. Nevertheless, and never fear, I’m not going to review Ok Computer, Sgt. Pepper or The Queen is Dead.

And there we have it, do join in with comments and the like. Perhaps, like me, once you’ve commented on blogs for long enough, you’ll start your own one…