So I’ve started this internship which requires me to get up at 7am. In the event of my brain distintegrating on the 1hr and 10min commute, I have been making morning mix tapes to massage my brain. Much of my music taste is culminated in the need to distract myself from the nausia I feel from early mornings. Wonderful.
Anyway, this tune is really mesmorising, I am always a fan of some pummelling bass, what others might refer to as ‘phat’ – but I am a northerner, so thats almost a dirty word, innit. But if you’re not northern and phat is part of your general dialogue, then this is for you. It features singer Beth Rowley, whose voice cuts through the bass and beats without that sickly lady sound that has become recently popular (think Nero and Crush On You, it’s not like that).
Yasmine Kittles and William Stangeland-Menchaca are a Los Angeles based duo. But don’t be fooled, their sound is far from the sandy shores and Hollywood boulevards that this Californian city might initially conjure up. The songs are steely and experimental, with obscure tones and vocal styles, but not in the Bjork sense… these are actual songs (oh me, how I wish Bjork would do those again). Their first full-length “Living: 2009-Present” was released in 2011, but they have big plans for future recordings, as Balladette Tess Duncan found out.
First, here are some faces.
Tess Ballad: What drew you to create a more natural, less edited record with “Living: 2009-Present”?
William: I’ve always been drawn to demo recordings of bands I like, and live records, really try to get the raw sound. We just wanted to present ourselves as ourselves in the purest form. I know it’s not what most people like and it’s not for everyone, but it’s what I appreciate. When I find a band I like I try to dig up all the weird, obscure sound recordings and demos. That’s just the way I am. I wanted to be able to present that to people that may feel the same way about that as us.
B: I know your live performance is extremely important to Tearist as a band. Would call what you do performance art? How does art play into your performance?
W: Yeah, that’s definitely the way Yasmine and I approach it.
B: What is the audience reaction typically like at your shows? Or is it very different every time?
W: It’s really different every time. It depends on where we are. Here in the States it’ll usually be like, “What the hell is going on? What do I do?” There will be some people nodding their heads, some people dancing, some people just standing there staring. A lot of staring! In Europe we noticed when we played in Dublin and in London people were really on the same level as us. They were treating it as music and moving and dancing and stuff. When we played the Old Blue Last [in London] it was really packed and it was a really good gig. When we play here [in the U.S.] it’s very different. Although I don’t know if it has to do with Los Angeles. It seems like the toughest crowd. Not that we’re trying to make people dance, but it’s cool when they do. We’ve only been to about 10 cities in the U.S. and it’s similar all around. When we go to a place where we have a lot of friends, it’s always better and there’s more energy.
Take a look listen right here:
B: Tearist’s sound is indescribable and without precedent. Are there any bands out there that you would compare yourself to?
W: Not really. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s a huge compliment, to not sound like anything and be completely unique. We definitely have influences. Most of the bands we like or that we’ve talked about in depth have been other bands like that, who didn’t have any influences or precedence. So that’s kind of what we want to be as well. Einstruzende Neubauten is one. They’re a German band and they’re a really interesting band to me. I’d heard of them on the periphery and I never really got into them and still to this day I don’t know a lot of their material. I just feel a certain connection to them. I don’t have to listen I just know there’s something innate about it that I relate with on a very deep level.
B: If not, was that intentional?
W: We didn’t talk about it like, “We want it to be indescribable.” It’s like a total progression, even now it’s still changing. And that’s also the whole reason we did the live record, to show the songs in their infancy. That whole thing was recorded in our first year of playing shows together. If you were to go to a show now and hear one of those songs it would probably sound really different. When we came up with a basic, general idea of how we wanted it to sound we realized it was not sounding like anything we’d heard. That was when we knew, “Okay this is what we’re doing. This is what we have to do.” And that’s another point we make with our live performances. We don’t use prerecorded tracks and stuff so it’s a unique experience every time.
B: Why do you choose to incorporate pieces of metal into your music?
W: The pieces Yasmine started using were pieces of metal laying around that I’d been messing around with before we’d met. Shortly after we started playing I just brought them out and gave them to her, and said, “You should use these.” We’ve gone to places, especially somewhere outside of the city, where there are abandoned buildings, warehouses, and junk lying out in yards. We’ve found things, even really close to where we’re playing. It’s not like we have to ask like, “Where’s the nearest junk shop?” It’s more organic. We’ve used just any scrap metal, drums, and containers. It’s a great contrast with the electronic music, which is usually thought of as clean and very rhythmic, because then you have the metal which is jagged and percussive. I think we both like contrast.
B: What are you guys working on now?
W: We’re working on a 12” record coming out really soon. We’ve also got a bunch of more stuff we’ve been recording every time we go out to New York. So we’ll have a few different things coming out in the next 6 months.
Jo Jo Joana, Ballad’s very own bluesy, soul, rock gospel goddess shares her latest addiction…
“Wraygunn is my new drug”
Imagined what is like to wake up at 5.45 am to go to college…CRAZY isn´t it…you have no time to think; I get dressed, take my car into the train station, then I take the train…and then the underground. Finally after a 15 minute walk, I´m at my destination. I´ts crazy! Since I´m avoinding to get back to my old coffee addiction I had to find a new “drug” to fill this emptiness that you get when you´re in need for some morning adrenaline.
The choice could not have been better…Wraygunn are a Portuguese band born in born in the late nineties. Paulo Furtado (better known as The Legendary Tigerman) takes the lead guitar and vocals, but nothing would make sense without the rest of group: Raquel Ralha (vocals), Sérgio Cardoso (bass guitar), Francisco Correia (sampler), Pedro Pinto (drums), Selma Uamusse (vocals) and João Doce (drums).
It´s impossible for me not to talk about them without saying that in my world, there are heroes – Johnny Cash is “The Man”, Bob Dylan “The Poet”…and Paulo Furtado “The charming rebel”, with his one man band project “The Legendary Tigerman”, he leaves the French crowd on their knees…he´s a hero, a pure dose of stage caffeine.
In Paulo´s own words Wraygunn “sound is something like Elvis singing in a space shuttle.”, I couldn’t say it better. The two Lady’s vocals leave our lungs empty and the rest of the band elements sound is so high, so energetic that it is impossible not to lose control over the boring rationality of this (so often “square”) world.
Wraygunn promised to be back in 2011…I´m waiting, and so is my adorable French friend Krystel Leal, who is responsible for this healthy new addiction.
So If you need to wake up and feel like jumping in the morning, grab your iPod and get lost in space, with these blues, soul, rock, gospel…(and so many other things) Band.
Cults have been everywhere this summer, with easy breezey vibes to soundtrack evening drinks (and pimp out to alcohol adverts – kerrching!!). Here Balladette Lauren meets the band.
And here are their faces:
CULTS are a notoriously difficult pair to pin down – a fact I am now personally experienced in after hounding their PR man for a response.
But I’ll be nice and go with the spin doctor approach: it all adds to the mystery surrounding the infamously tight-lipped Californians.
The pair crept onto the lo-fi scene two years ago to little fanfare with a smattering of nostalgia-laden nuggets channeling the sound of 60s girl groups like The Shangri-Las.
Those paying attention however noted that the pigeon-hole method wouldn’t work to describe the former film students’ style.
The dead give away should have been that “Cults” – aka Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion – associated themselves from the off with a concept whose extra-curricular activities include mass suicide.
With a name like that, you can’t be blamed for thinking they’re a death metal band whose stage antics include setting their urine on fire. So you sort of feel a bit cheated when their candy coated sing-a-long methods kick in.
But once the sugar high wears off it becomes apparent that the whole album is the chocolate box equivalent of leftover coffee liqueurs: bitter tales of heartbreak etc, disguised in a sugary shell.
I sit down and ask Cults to clear up a few things…
Ballad Of: Why did you choose a 50s/60s nostalgia vibe?
Cults: When it comes to the way in which our music sounds it just comes from the way we feel at the time.
We never set out to make our music sound any particular way or fit into any specific genre.
It’s just what we think sounds good to us at the time and works well with what we’re saying in our songs.
Ballad Of: What’s been the most exciting thing to happen to Cults in the last year?
Cults: Releasing our debut album, Cults, for sure.
It’s such an achievement to finally have it out and available.
I mean we’ve met a lot of amazing people and our latest tour this year has been incredible, but we’ve got to go with the release of the album for the single most exciting thing.
Ballad Of: Which song best sums up Cults and why?
Cults: Probably Screws Get Loose by Those Darlings. We play it before every show we do.
Ballad Of: There’s a lot of hype around Cults at the moment – what’s the bizarrest thing you’ve read/heard about yourselves?
Cults: The most bizarre thing has to be that we’re brother and sister.
Ballad Of: What was the first gig both of you went to – what sort of impact did it make, if any?
Cults: It was Bowling For Soup, many, many moons ago – it was, as you can imagine, a questionable experience for one and all.
Ballad Of: As you’re both former film students, do films inspire your music? Which films inspire you?
Cults: Film does inspire our music yeah, and now since the success of our music, we’re basing our films around the music we’re making.
We love doing our music videos it’s a great chance to combine our two passions together you know..?
…And that is all I managed to glean out of Cults. You’ll have to figure the rest out for yourselves.
It’s horrible isn’t it? I don’t need to go into how horrible Monday mornings can be, and it’s the first of September and it rained a tonne this last week, days are getting shorter and in general the importance of getting the right morning ‘kick start’ or ‘second wind’ or ‘ok commuter’ playlist is mounting. So Ballad are going to, ya know, give you some inspiration.
Introducing… Polarsets
Hailing from North Tyneside, this floppy hairedd 3 piece are your indie band you’d invite to play your disco party. With a touch of the 90s old skool rave thats been so popular this summer but without the over kill that David Guetta has been licensing r n b stars all 2011, with clean vocals and tropical beats (woohoo, polyrhythms!). So it’s Faithless, meets Temper Trap, meets Friendly Fires. This track is called Morning, and it is perfect for pepping you up in the morning, especially if it’s a morning stroll after the night before.
We love it when a reader starts to become a writer for Ballad!! Balladude Barrie Wilson tells us who Still Corners are…
A London-based multi-national outfit Still Corners are fresh off a US tour including dates with Paper Cuts and a jaunt to Austin’s South-by-South-West festival. In the UK they’ve recently preformed a Maida Vale session for Radio 1’s Huw Stephens on his BBC Introducing show.
One of only two UK acts (the other being Male Bonding) signed to the legendary
US label Sub-Pop (this is great, it’s also home to Avi Buffalo/Vaselines/Dum Dum Girls/Pissed Jeans… and tonnes more)… the band have a cinematic flare which is understandable if you listen to how the band met upon a misty platform after getting off at the wrong stop.
But who are they?
A four piece with a star in singer Tessa Murray is a former choir vocalist lends their off kilter tragi-pop an ethereal edge which the other band members nail down with a gorgeous layer o sensual Portishead-esque rhythm and harmony. And songwriter Greg Hughes cites Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Doctor Who theme fame as a key influence in the bands sound that lends everything a Spectoral-spectral edge. This is soft 60s shimmering pop designed with twist of synths for 2011.
Another North American tour is lined-up for the tail-end of the year with a single UK date on October 10th at Café Oto, London. Keep eyes and ears peeled for more in 2012.
With the popularity of mountain folk pop (think Fleet Foxes and Local Natives) and psychedelic pop (think MGMT or Cloud Control) influenced music increasing steadily it’s about time the UK had it’s own home grown hero straddling the genres leading a new wave of talent. Some may have suspect James Blake to take this mantle (though for me personally, it’s a bit boring and a verging on poor man Money Mark – Cam) but “jump back” (quote from Footloose), because the UK has one better to offer – Balladette Tess Duncan meets Paul Thomas Saunders.
Ballad: You just finished a tour with The Head and the Heart. How was it?
Paul: It was pretty special I think, we’ve never toured with a band that take to the stage so naturally, its such a visceral experience for them and clearly how
their music is meant to be heard. I’ve always considered my existence to be
the absolute opposite. I feel most at home when I’m recording, I write the
songs on my own, and record them with at most one other person there, I find
performing to an audience an inherently unnatural thing. I’ve never been too
sure of what a large crowd could bring to the music, but during this tour we
stumbled across a place where it resonated to some extent. I think my live band
and I felt like we had to work a lot harder than we were used to after seeing
The Head and The Heart on the first night, they give an awful lot, so we had
to throw ourselves into each song to engage a crowd that had come expecting
more than just four shoe-gazers.
Ballad: I know you went to college in Leeds, did you also grow up there?
P: I didn’t grow up in Leeds, no, I moved around a lot, but I’ve been in Leeds
for 4 years now. It does seem like your in the middle of nowhere from time
to time, but there’s a lot of good music and it’s full of interesting people who
don’t entirely know what they want to do with their lives yet. It sometimes feels
like a halfway house, not many of the young folks will settle down here, but it’s
a slow city that you can fade into while your fathoming the whole life dilemma.
The ones who think they’ve figured it out will move on to bigger cities. It’s a
cruel illusion but because the place fills up with new students every year and
your friends move away, the population seems to stay the same age. I’m pretty
sure I’m the only person ageing in this city.
B: How did you get involved in music?
P: When I was about 7, I was certain that I’d written Blowing in the Wind, I’d
been humming this tune and singing words that vaguely resembled the ‘actual’
lyrics for a week or so. My dad recognised it, dug out his copy of Freewheelin’
and put it on, I tried to explain that I’d written it but he wouldn’t believe me.
I’ve basically been on a mission to prove that this Bob Dylan fellow plagiarised
me ever since. I thought if I had a lengthy back catalogue of work, it would
strengthen my case.
B: “Four Songs in Twilight” was released in 2009 (2010). How did recording inthe basement affect the EP?
P: It wasn’t really that we recorded in a basement by choice, that was just the
logical location available to us at the time. It was under a shared house I was
living in and it was pretty damp and cramped which wasn’t ideal, but it was
a free space and that was all we were looking for. We only had a cheap mic,
a laptop and four songs but that’s what was enjoyable about it. I think it’s
dangerous when you’re in a studio with good gear, you start to cut corners and
it can become really sterile and safe. The unglamorous surroundings force you
to use our imagination, you have to come up with ways of making it sound
interesting without using studio jiggery pokery. Even the instrumentation has to become a little wilder as you lose a lot of the more subtle nuances to the lo-fi.
Watch PTS live here
B: How does “Lilac and Wisteria” compare with your first EP?
P: Drastically I hope. Four Songs in Twilight was essentially a set of demos
recorded over four nights, at the time, I never planned to let anyone hear it.
With Lilac and Wisteria, I guess we wanted to make something we were proud
to show people, so a lot more thought went into the whole process. I think we
really submerged ourselves for the few months we were making it. I remember
it being relief to listen to something other than the E.P when we’d finished.
I was worried about other influences seeping into the recordings so I tried to
detox myself of outside music while we were working on it.
B: You reference flowers and nature a lot in your music. Is theresomething that draws you to this theme? Does nature inspire you?
P: Not consciously, I guess nature is something that you’re surrounded by every minute of every day, so it might find a way in through osmosis or something? I think a lot of the time when I mention flowers though, I’m not really talking about flowers, like the title. The exception being ‘Here Lies Soleil, So Long’, that song has something to do with nature I think. I find it quite overwhelming, and I like that feeling. It’s like when I remember how fortuitous everything is, you feel powerless and insignificant, but relieved too, like all your responsibilities have lifted. It’s a rush.
B: I hear a lot of darkness in your music. Does darkness inspire you in some way?
P: I don’t know if it inspires me? But I definitely benefit from the whole catharsis
thing. I think as a result I can be quite cold though. I put a lot into the songs,
so when it comes to expressing myself elsewhere, I can feel like I’ve already
channeled that emotion somewhere and have trouble accessing it again.
Also, I think it can be at the really bleak times that you romanticize to shield
from the tragedy of whatever you’re experiencing. You claw for some
reasoning or rational, I guess it’s in that place that a lot of great songshave
been written.
B: How do you feel about the new British folk scene and how do you see yourselffitting into it?
P: I think I’m pretty unworthy to be called folk, even more so after Lilac and
Wisteria, but then again most of the artists that get the ‘new folk’ tag try to
wriggle free from it, I think its just a lot to live up to. I see folk as a purest
form of music, integrity is paramount, and it would never be compromised for
commercial viability. I think if someone listened to me expecting folk music,
they’d be thoroughly disappointed.
I wouldn’t say that my music holds true to any of folk’s oral traditions either,
these songs weren’t passed down from generation to generation, and my father
didn’t teach me the chords that his father taught him, what I make is essentially
pop music.
B: What direction do you see yourself heading in?
P: I think next I’m going to aim for that new British folk sound?
B: “Lilac and Wisteria” was released on RT60 Records. Do you plan on releasinganyone else’s albums/EPs?
P: Eventually, possibly. At the moment, I don’t feel like RT60 could offer an act
much more than if they released it themselves, I’m sort of the guinea pig at this
stage. It would be great to help out other people though one day, I know we’ve
had a lot of leg ups from the Leeds indie labels, I’d like to do the same for
someone else. I always wanted RT60 to be something that isn’t strictly music,
it would be great to be at the helm of something that’s just a sea of creativity,
but now I’m just being facetious. I would like to release something by my live
band The Fever Dreams though.
B: What can you tell me about the rumors of a full-length album?
I think there’ll definitely be an album next year, I’m writing now, and I think
they’ll be another E.P. before then too, we’ll have to see.
Roll up roll up, our buddies at Do It Again (a disco party happening at The Drop on Friday 22nd THIS FRIDAY!!) have kindly opened their record box to select some choice tracks for all balladeers to enjoy…. here we go:
TRIPPED AND FELL IN LOVE – YACHT
IT’S been two years since Jona Bechtolt and Clare Evans introduced us to a slew of hypnotic hooks set to existential thoughts on life and death.
But Yacht’s sophomore offering doesn’t disappear into the bland and disappointing ether.
Utopia acts as a footnote to the debut, continuing the Kierkegaardian themes: Tripped and Fell in Love is one its standout tracks, turning an overused metaphor into a driving dance floor filler. Conceptual to a fault and kitsch enough to play enough until you’re dizzy with glorious repetition.
OBSCURE Swedish quintet, MF/MB, save Chk Chk Chk’s Jamie My Intentions Are Bass from a life of track-skipping obscurity and stitch in a much needed bass line, finally making it worthy of its namesake.
Less psychedelia: more beats. Simple.
CRAVE YOU – FLIGHT FACILITES ft. GISELLE (C90s REMIX)
Just when you thought that Italians did do it better, a disco remix comes along to steal a piece of Mike Simonetti’s glory.
So it is with this remix of Flight Facilities’ Crave You.
London DJ duo, The C90s, do a sensitive job of leaving the pre-existing jazz and funk core alone, instead lending it an irresistible handclap beat and an electronic undertone Moroder would be proud of.
REWORKING an indie classic is always a risk, especially when it’s as universally loved as Phoenix’s Lisztomania.
But Alex Metric’s version aside, Edwin Van Cleef’s interpretation is the bravest on the blogs.
Dipping the original in a vat of summer-time, it comes out dripping with double the synths and the ethereal vocal whimsy of Jane Hanley.
It doesn’t get more anthemic.
WHEN James Murphy said he was he was losing his edge to the kids from behind, he was predicting the rise of youngsters in his own backyard.
And even though die-hard fans are still mourning LCD Soundsystem’s retirement, this New York duo is making a heroic attempt to fill the void.
Undeniably the finest way to open an italo-pop album, Do It Again shudders with the same robotic accuracy that propelled an entire era of electronic music onto our turntables.
It’s an unadulterated disco rush marked by industrial licks and beats. Like much of the 80s, it lacks soul, but who’s looking for meaning on a Friday night dance floor?
I have just ‘come to’ from Primavera Sound, which was about 2 weeks ago but because I took a 2 week holiday to sleep it off and pitter patter around the Spanish streets for, well, mainly Estrella, I figure I won’t carve out a review exclaming to you how wonderfully sublime (or whatever people write) the music was at the festival. You can tell from the line up it’s pretty good, and lets be honest, reviews are mostly boring.
Instead I am going to highlight bands that I happen to see and who were great, with some snippets for you to enjoy and bask in the glory of the ‘strange moosic’ (which, for the record, is a reference to the new Herman Dune album, a quick review = it’s pretty awful).
Here goes:
Suuns
and
I have developed an irrational crush on the lead singer. I have felt the need to tell everyone, it’s a sort of exorcism of some terrible demon. I can’t really remember what he looks like, he just caught me on a strange day and I can’t seem to ditch him. I suspect it’s because these tunes are so epically cool. FIND OUT MROE IN THE INTERVIEW IN THE CURRENT MAG.
Swans
Post-punk with waves of industrial slather. Yeah, that might not make much sense, which is why we have the video to hand. Probably my most enjoyable gig at Primo, although Big Boi was good (we all know those tunes so we’ve refrained from including them here, for now).
No Joy
Some of Montreal’s finest, hurrah for Canada, who have done pretty well in this line up so far. I couldn’t find a vid so the pic is a link to their myspace *(come back soon, lovers)*. They have the same management as Deerhunter or something. Shoegaze meets doom – at last!
tUnE yArDs
Don’t be put off by the wacky way the name is spelt, not everyone is as miserable as us, most people think it’s cute. This lady is pretty nuts in the best possible of ways, and beautifully way outside all our imaginations.
Male Bonding
Hey, time for some UK solidarity! Our compadres are being propped up by the very decent US label Sub Pop, holding down fair blighty’s fort and doing us proud!
Other great shows came from War Paint, Deerhunter, Kurt Vile (oh see our interview), Big Boi, Baths and Battles. There were tonnes of great bands I missed/was forced to miss due deeply upsetting scheduling.
KURT Vile is on the road. There’s a slight echo over the phone, a sort of tinny sound found only in small spaces provided to you by the back of a smallish van, and the window is down as the vroom of passing vehicles intersects our conversation. Today he is en route to Chicago, mid way through his US tour and reasonably glad that they are now only, oh “a few hours, 3 I think” away from their – Kurt is touring with backing band The Violators – next destination, Chicago. In standard European fashion, I wince inside at the thought of sitting even 1 hour in pretty much any vehicle, let alone a tin can, and I am becoming aware now, it’s a hot tin can where refuge comes from blasts of air from the congested high way. But Kurt is a hardened American (at least for the sake of this here article), with a laid back confidence and as a musician is suited to the touring life in all respects – after all, his two previous records were written and recorded as live, and he’s been playing music his whole life.
“I played the trumpet in 4th grade” says Vile with a soft laid back east coast twang that sears through his heartland rock, “There was this presentation of different instruments, and I wanted to play the trumpet, there were only 3 valves, it looked easy”. But it was on the banjo that he started to hone his skills, until a neighbour gave him an acoustic guitar and he started to record songs influenced by his father’s record collection. “I was always into music as kid, and my Dad played records – The Beatles, Blue Grass, Doc Watson, Folk, Blues …old time music” and hints of this line his records. Today though he is hesitant to say what influences him musically “So many people…”.
He’s commonly likened to Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty, but there is a bluesy-feel of Velvet Underground, veil of roughness of the stooges in places and a freewheeling, acoustic and vocal effortlessness of Neil Young, all tangled up into his own warped and unhinged Kurt Vile package.
After the break through success of album Childish Prodigy in 2009, Vile is back on the road with a new record, Smoke Ring for My Halo, also released on Matador.
He doesn’t claim any firm vision for the record when he started out, other than progressing, however you might imagine that, with his writing. “The latest record is a progression in that you’re trying new things, I don’t want to repeat I want to become a better player.” This is Vile’s first studio record and when recording he set himself high standards with awareness of second –album-struggle-syndrome, pushing himself to explore the parameters his writing, approaching it with a “If you’re going to say something then say it”, frame of mind and what we have is a gentile record compared to the last, still bluesy and somehow still nonchalant. “I happened to have a lot
of acoustic heartfelt songs piled up, recorded at least an EP worth that couldn’t fit, thematically or physically. [The songs were] Wondering, emotionally changed folk songs, a bit Joni Mitchell – I was surprised how acoustic it was, even as I tried to add electricity it still feels acoustic “. The adaptation to live, with support from band The Violators, the sound changes even more. “It definitely rocks more live, we’re still sensitive but we also want the adrenaline and the crowds, it’s kind of what we do, we
rock – although sometimes I play some acoustic if I feel.” It’s the continuing evolution that Kurt Vile is scoring into his artistry that keeps him fresh to the ear and dare I say it, exciting. “Recording captures the sound of it then, but music evolves. People take too much stock in recording, but then song plays you rather than you playing the song.”
His latest record Smoke Ring for my Halo is out now on Matador. Take a listen.
Catch Kurt Vile live Thursday 19th at Rough Trade East.
