Vandaveer

Vandaveer (Mark Charles) was a hell of a treat when he and the guys from These United States stayed over at the end of their tour of the UK - watching the Wimbledon final (THE Wimbledon final de nos jours) with them was an unexpected pleasure...

Just noticed a couple of clips up at the excellent French site Blogotheque:

Woolgathering

Vandaveer - Woolgathering / Roman Candle - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

and The Streets Is Full Of Creeps

Vandaveer - The Streets is full of creeps - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Royal Bangs

Some wonderful shows found at WOXY... These United States, Horse Feathers, and one of my favourite new bands, Royal Bangs...

WOXY

Centro-matic, South San Gabriel videos

A couple of shows were filmed by ABtv in Belgium in April. Fantastic stuff:

Centro-matic

http://www.abconcerts.be/en/abtv/p/detail/centro-matic-2

South San Gabriel

http://www.abconcerts.be/en/abtv/p/detail/centro-matic

New Centro-matic video

Nice to see Centro-matic on video... From the Undertow site:

From album the "Dual Hawks" out now on Misra Records.
We spent a few hours in front of Dan's Silverleaf in Denton, TX on a very warm summer day. Here's the video we made. It's all one shot with no edits. We did it 16 times to get it right. Our friend Mark Ray did all the cool animations on top of the HD footage we shot. Hope you like it.

Centro-matic - Rat Patrol and DJs from Undertow on Vimeo.

(Free) MP3s of the week

Songs don't come much more beautiful than Horse Feather's Curs In The Weeds. The rest of the album, House With No Home, is wonderful too.

These United States' album, Crimes, is also finally released. Download Get Yourself Home here... Also, the band have just done their second Daytrotter session. Four free downloads from that (excellent session) here.

Chris Bathgate's Salt Year

I have fallen deeply in love with a song. Chris Bathgate's Salt Year, on Wait, Skeleton, is so deeply beautiful - a tale of love that should have been taken, and a tune that takes your heart from deep in your stomach. It is sparse, simple and simply gorgeous.

seventeen years before 
I should have hauled off and kissed her
now I lace my wine with ginger 
just let my evenings pass
they pass

she's whistling in a candy store
and I'm just screaming in the dark here
I'm just choking down a salt year
and sugar's all I've longed for
I try again

seventeen and there she stood
a photograph in my doorway
and I felt all my light leave me
my thoughts all tumbling under

after that my days resign to static and gray hair and soft cry
like a cracked crystal second hand wine chime
just clanging for a lover
I can love
try again

I can't offer a free mp3 of the song - it's available for download from most places, but there is a YouTube clip of Chris performing the song live:

Land of Talk

Delighted that this band are banging out another album - a fantastic combination of female lead vocals and aggressive rock, Land of Talk haven't forgotten melody or songs... The new album Some Are Lakes, if the two pre-release download tracks (Some Are Lakes, and Corner Phone) are anything to go by, will be excellent.

MP3 of the week

Heard of this band on the KEXP Song of the Day podcast... The Quiet Ones are a Seattle-based band, and I love their lead single Girls and Uniforms. Download it from their website... The album is a pretty rich treat. I'm sure I'll be posting more soon...

The Walkmen UK tour dates

The Rat may be one of the best singles of all time (in my head), and hearing The Walkmen nail it live remains a highlight of the past few years...

Here's a video of the lead single In The New Year, recorded for Pitchfork TV...

They're back in the UK next month - you should see them:

October

28th London ULU

29th Manchester Academy 3

31st Leeds Cockpit

 

November

1st Glasgow Stereo

2nd Dublin Button Factory

Cotton Mather/ Future Clouds and Radar

I must admit to knowing an awful lot less about this band than I should...

Cotton Mather are a band I became aware of in the 90s - their Beatle-esque stuff is just fantastic (although they're not so fond of that reference). But they seem to exist in some kind of alternate universe - I hear little to nothing about them, apart from just how much I like them every time I hear them. 

I was re-alerted when I listened to Little Steven's Underground Garage compilation, and prompted to dig around. There is a MySpace page, but really very little else... At least there are some downloads there...

Then, a little more digging that has me inordinately excited - there's a new band - Future Clouds and Radar (listen to some new tracks here), which has a new album coming out soon. Seems lead man Robert Harrison has been ill, and this is a new direction... Watch for more soon.

Free Music... August

Best new album of the month for me (after The Walkmen...): The Uglysuit's self-titled debut. Download Chicago (not the best track, but the free-est) here .

After that, you'd be missing out if you didn't also take advantage of Richard Swift's generosity in releasing his latest EP for free here. 

The Walkmen - new album

Listening right now to the new Walkmen album, which seems to be a great return to Bows + Arrows form...

It is also both remarkably good value, and good for the soul. Here's the band's note:

You & Me is now available for $5 at www.amiestreet.com/thewalkmen .

For every record purchased, $5 will be donated to the  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

I don't know how a $5 album makes $5 for a (great) cancer centre, but this is a wonderful idea. Buy a few copies!