Port O'Brien @ ICA London 21st Oct

The week before pay day is a quiet one for me. I usually live off veggie chilli and watch lots of telly whilst awaiting currency, but this week has been real busy and it’s getting busier. I guess you can’t turn down the prospect of free gigs.

Last nights gig at the ica (eat your own ears) was brilliant. Alaskan’s Port O’Brien were on top form and they looked genuinely surprised that so many people had turned up to the show. The guitar player (Cambria Goodwin ) looked like he was in his element, waltzing around the stage like a replica of Neil young, whilst the singer (Van Pierszalowski) bared his soul, denouncing Sarah Palin and getting the crowd to sing along and footstump. His voice reminds me of Jeff Tweedy, Will Oldham or Coner Oberst in the more stripped down bits of their songs.



There’s so many things I like about this band, I love the fact that they’ve got a bango player, I love the instrumental tangents they go off on when they rock out, I love Van’s voice and the space between the instruments when they play quietly.



Highlight of the show was "Woke Up Today" which is is a life affirming, super joyful song. The band asked the crowd to get on stage at the end and as you can see from the pics, it was damn special.

Good show. Great band ! (Buy)

Mp3 - My Eyes Won't Shut
Mp3 - Five and Dime

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Of Montreal: Rough Trade Instore 14th Oct

Steven Jesse Bernstein: Prison

I'm not normally one for listening to the lame cd's you get with music mags, but Mojo seems to be pretty good at dishing out quality selections from time to time. A few months ago they did a Sub Pop cd to coincide with their 20th anniversary. All the usual suspects were on the cd, but there was one guy I’d never heard before called Steven Jesse Bernstein and I was immediately struck by the intensity and delivery of his poems which he read over jazzy / lounge / experimental music. Bernstein suffered from mental illness and unfortunately committed suicide in 1991, which meant that the album was never fully completed, but the 10 tracks he did record are testament to his genius. (Buy Prison)

Mp3 - Steven Jesse Bernstein - No No Man (Part 1)

Blitzen Trapper: Furr

I think this is my favourite album of the year. I love the Fleet Foxes album, but I really like the eclectic sound of the songs and instruments used on this record. There’s one tune called ‘Saturday nite’ which I’ve had on repeat since I first heard it. It’s only about 2mins but it’s the perfect track to put on just before you head out, think Beatles, Wilco, Neil Young with abit of Bee Gees / Scissor Sisters / Stevie Wonder thrown in for good measure…boppy tune…gosh does that sound dodgy? Well it’s not; you’ll understand when you hear it.

Opening track “Sleepytime in the Western World” sounds like something the Raconteurs or Brendan Benson could have written. It’s full of sun drenched organ and fuzzy guitars with some wonderful melodies and some killer guitar licks, like when Wilco bust out. “Gold For Bread” and “God & Suicide” reminds me of The Shins abit. Gold for Bread is a definite single; it’s pretty upbeat with a nice dreamy verse and some good electronic noodling in the back ground, funny to hear the use of pan pipes at the end of the track.

Furr sounds like Bob Dylan covering The Shins, really nice acoustic intermit vocals about him turning into a wolf. Other tracks on the album seem to hop between upbeat dreamy, oddball indie to Americana / southern sounding stuff and Acoustic, Piano, Folk pop.

It’s funny cause you’d think this would make an album sound disjointed, but it doesn’t sound misplaced. I think they’ve got the balance right on this album, which can be a hard thing to do when messin with genres.

Mp3 - Blitzen Trapper - Saturday Nite (via http://bagofsongs.com/)

Mp3 - Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Music Of The Alphabet: C

Call Me Lightning - Billion Eyes (Punk)
Camp X-Ray - Quicksand (Punk)
Canada - Beige Stationwagon (Rock)
Canadians - Summer Teenage Girl (Alternative)
Cancer Bats - French Immersion (Rock)
The Cansecos - Raised By Wolves (Electronic)
Cap D - Uncle Sam (feat Slug) (Rap)
Capsula - Voices Underground (Rock)
Captain Ahab - I Can't Wait For Summer (Electronic)
Correatown - Fascination (Singer-Songwriter)
Corto Maltese - Providence (Rock)
The Cotton Jones Basket Ride - Chewing Gum (Pop)
Cougar Den - Sirens Off Mute (Rock)
Crew 54 - Keep On Moving (Rap)
Captain Danger - Doghouse (Pop)
Care Bears on Fire - Everybody Else (Rock)
Career Criminal - City Life (Punk)
Carlis Star - Hereby No One (Rock)
The Carrots - Secret Since '99 (R&B)
Cary Brothers - Who You Are (Rock)
Cassettes Won't Listen - Paper Float (Rock)
Cassius Khan - bhooli bisri (World)
Castanets - This Is The Early Game (Avant/Experimental)
Cate Le Bon - Disappear (Singer-Songwriter)
Centro-matic - Triggers and Trash Heaps (Rock)
Channel 3 - One More For All My True Friends (Punk)
Chet - By Night Into Paradise (Rock)
The Chevelles - Get It On (Rock)
Cheveu - hello friend (Rock)
Chikita Violenta - Laydown (Rock)
Child Bite - Ape Along (Punk)
Chingo Bling - Do it (Rap)
The Chocolate Horse - The Caribbean (Rock)
The Choir Practice - Red Fox (Pop)
Choklate - Waitin Feat (Singer-Songwriter)
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Electronic)
Citay - First Fantasy (Rock)
Clare & The Reasons - Pluto (Rock)
Clipd Beaks - Melter (Rock)
Cloud Cult - Chain Reaction (Rock)
The Clutters - 9999 (Ways to Hate Us) (Rock)
The Coast - Nueva York (Rock)
Coliseum - Fall Of The Pigs (Punk)
Collections of Colonies of Bees - Flocks III (Rock)
Colour Revolt - Naked and Red (Rock)
Coma in Algiers - House on Fire (Punk)
The Cops (WA) - It's Epidemic (Rock)
Copter - Evil (Blues)
Corn Mo and the .357 Lover - Hava Nagila Monster (Rock)
Cruiserweight - Balboa (Rock)
Crunc Tesla - Welcome to the Circus (Electronic)
Cryptacize - Cosmic Sing-a-long (Pop)
Cunnin Lynguists - Yellow Lines featuring Witchdoctor and Phonte (Rap)
Curumin - Esperanca (World)
Cut Copy - Lights & Music (Electronic)
The Cynics - What She Said (Rock)

H Street Soundtrack

I done a post about this skate video a while ago here and super good blog Kick to Kill have uploaded the soundtrack for download here. The soundtrack itself sounds like it's been taped from vhs but there are some seriously good tunes on it !

Vic Chesnutt: West Of Rome

I was going through a bunch of old cd's the other day and stumbled across this gem of a record by Vic Chesnutt (West Of Rome). I was first introduce to this chap when a friend of mine's band played with him at the Borderline in London around 1994 / 1995. I remember he played in the summer holidays during a hot August month. I sat in one of the corners of the venue and was totally captivated by his heart breakin southern vocals and dead pan sense of humour.

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Monotonix

Mp3 - Monotonix -Body Language

Mp3 - Monotonix - Summers & Autumns