This is a montage of Baskery, performing a two hour set at the 'Luckenbach Festival' in Texas, U.S.A (more info here.. luckenbachtexas.com) Those three Swedish sisters look like they rocked the locals with their high tempo punky take on American country and roots music. What a cracking venue for a chilled out gig, taking in the vibes in the sun with a cool beer in your hand, all set against the backdrop of what looks like the local store from 'The Little House On The Prairie' It looks like a good time was had by all...
Many thanks to Matt Bynum for alerting me to his handiwork, it makes a pleasant change to see a nifty bit of film footage of a band, that's smoothly shot, high res and jolly smartly edited, rather than the usual shaky grainy mobile murky view of the backs of people's heads, which is unfortunately the norm on YouTube these days.
Baskery - Selected highlights - live at Luckenbach Texas on September 5 2009.
Directed by Matt Bynum, check out his camerawork at mattbynumfilms
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Slow Club and First Aid Kit Live Review
Acts: Slow Club, First Aid Kit, Wise Children, Jojo and Patch
Location: Southampton, U.K
Venue: The Joiners
Date: 16/09/09
Jojo and Patch, it's a name that evokes an image of a perplexing children's animation from Eastern Europe featuring a malevolent clown and his organ grinding monkey chum! (this sort of thing was a regular feature on the schedules of The B.B.C back in the Seventies and was responsible for warping the fragile young minds of many susceptible children of my generation) Jojo or Patch, for I never worked out which one was he, opened up the evening's entertainment with a gentle set of songs. He has a pleasing understated singing voice that recalls a Damien Rice or Bill Callahan from Smog.
It restored my faith in listening to sensitive singer songwriter types, after witnessing a horrific open mic night earlier in the year, when I was on holiday earlier in the summer. A procession of gauche young men attempted to sing along in a Jack Johnson crossed with Kurt Cobain style to their bedsit penned ditties to the groaning drinkers/audience. I swear, at one point, one aspiring James Blunt slunk off stage with tears in his eyes, mumbling apologies for being so bad, having cleared the pub of punters during his brief stint.
No such problems for our man though, who kept the sprinkling of punters onboard with a stirring strum through a handful of his compositions plus a cover version (Tom McCrae?) Patch or Jojo joined his compadre onstage for the final part of their set, it helped by having an extra guitarist to fill out the sound and hinted at the potential that could really bear fruit as they develop. All in all, it was good mojo for Jojo and worth keeping an eye (patch) on.
Jojo and Patch - Don't Hang Your Head - Live at The Joiners 16/09/09
Location: Southampton, U.K
Venue: The Joiners
Date: 16/09/09
Jojo and Patch, it's a name that evokes an image of a perplexing children's animation from Eastern Europe featuring a malevolent clown and his organ grinding monkey chum! (this sort of thing was a regular feature on the schedules of The B.B.C back in the Seventies and was responsible for warping the fragile young minds of many susceptible children of my generation) Jojo or Patch, for I never worked out which one was he, opened up the evening's entertainment with a gentle set of songs. He has a pleasing understated singing voice that recalls a Damien Rice or Bill Callahan from Smog.
It restored my faith in listening to sensitive singer songwriter types, after witnessing a horrific open mic night earlier in the year, when I was on holiday earlier in the summer. A procession of gauche young men attempted to sing along in a Jack Johnson crossed with Kurt Cobain style to their bedsit penned ditties to the groaning drinkers/audience. I swear, at one point, one aspiring James Blunt slunk off stage with tears in his eyes, mumbling apologies for being so bad, having cleared the pub of punters during his brief stint.
No such problems for our man though, who kept the sprinkling of punters onboard with a stirring strum through a handful of his compositions plus a cover version (Tom McCrae?) Patch or Jojo joined his compadre onstage for the final part of their set, it helped by having an extra guitarist to fill out the sound and hinted at the potential that could really bear fruit as they develop. All in all, it was good mojo for Jojo and worth keeping an eye (patch) on.
Jojo and Patch - Don't Hang Your Head - Live at The Joiners 16/09/09
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Matt Bauer - As She Came Out Of The Water
Purveyor of spine tingling Americana music, Matt Bauer is dusting down his banjo, packing the throat lozenges and heading out on an extensive tour of the U.S.A and France (No mention of the U.K at the moment but if we ask nicely, perhaps he'll stop by)
I first wrote about the brooding banjo maestro here back in August 2008 and again during my 12 Grooves of Christmas awarding him a prodigious "Scratchy Seal of Approval" for 2008.
If you were blown away by Bon Iver's 2007 album For Emma, Forever Ago and let's face it, most of the music blogging behemoth were drooling over this last year, including myself, you'll be just as impressed by Matt's earthy approach to creating atmospheric haunting folk tunes. I always like the way he manages to respectfully nod towards his American musical roots in his songwriting, without being overly reverential, thus ensuring his music has a timeless quality to it. For a big grizzly bear of a man, he produces an intimate singing style, a ghostly whisper yet his singing demands attention and the substance of the stories quickly draw in the listener.
I first wrote about the brooding banjo maestro here back in August 2008 and again during my 12 Grooves of Christmas awarding him a prodigious "Scratchy Seal of Approval" for 2008.
If you were blown away by Bon Iver's 2007 album For Emma, Forever Ago and let's face it, most of the music blogging behemoth were drooling over this last year, including myself, you'll be just as impressed by Matt's earthy approach to creating atmospheric haunting folk tunes. I always like the way he manages to respectfully nod towards his American musical roots in his songwriting, without being overly reverential, thus ensuring his music has a timeless quality to it. For a big grizzly bear of a man, he produces an intimate singing style, a ghostly whisper yet his singing demands attention and the substance of the stories quickly draw in the listener.
This was the lead track Don't Let Me Out from the album the 2008 album The Island Moved in the Storm.. buy it here
A new video has just been posted up for one of the tracks from the above album released via La Société Expéditionnaire, it's a thing of subtle beauty.
Matt Bauer - As She Came Out of the Water (Matt shot the footage) edited by Jenny Lee and features Miss Melaena Cadiz.
10/14/09 - Chicago, IL - Shuba’s
10/15/09 - Bloomington, IN - Russian Recording
10/16/09 - Lexington, KY - The Dame
10/17/09 - Nelsonville, OH - Stuart’s Opera House
FRANCE
10/27/09 - LaBouche d'Air - Nantes, France
10/28/09 - La Lunes Des Pirates - Amiens, France
10/29/09 - TBA - Lille, France
10/30/09 - Collegiale -Vitry-le Fracois, France
10/31/09 - Le Cafe De La Danse - Paris, France
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Hear This! 'Hanging out with Itchy and Scratchy'
People often ask me, what's it like hanging out at Scratchy Towers? usually followed by comments such as "I bet it's just one long session of wine, wimmin' and song" "it must be one long groovy party, what with all those legendary vinyl platters being given a spin" and "Do you live your life like a superstar D.J?"
Well my inquisitive vinyl loving chums, I usually like to keep a low profile to keep out of the tabloids, but I can exclusively reveal that life at Scratchy Towers is all of the above and so much more. Here is a rare photo of myself and Mr Knackers in deep discussion, at the H.Q command centre. We've taken a short break from the non stop hedonism, in order to sort the wheat from the chaff, deciding which platters really matter and should be given a spin at the next non stop banging V.I.P rave.
O.K, it's actually a rather lovely oddity of a record, featuring a conversation between the late Bob Auger, a highly respected sound engineer and Bob Hardcastle, a leading music producer (any further information on Mr Hardcastle would be appreciated)
Bob Auger worked on "a number of high-profile public occasions both in the pop and classical fields. These included as varied events as the 1969 Isle of Wight Pop Festival, the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, Frank Sinatra's charity concert at the Festival Hall and Karlheinz Stockhausen's concert in the same hall in the mid-1970s" He also turned his talents to some of the most famous pop songs to come out of Pye Records in the Sixties such as The Kinks "You Really Got Me" "Sunny Afternoon"The Animals "House of the Rising Sun" and The Spencer Davis Group "Keep on Running"
Hear This! 1981 Discourses Limited DCL 1224
Side One
Reinhold Gliere Symphony No.3 in B minor
John Stanley Six Organ Concertos Op 10 No 5 in A major
Ludwig Van Beethoven The Piano Concerto No 4 in G major
Carl Maria Von Weber Concertino in E flat Op 26
Franz Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major
Scott Joplin Extract from Sunflower Slow Drag
Side 2
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons Concerto No 3 (Autumn)
Joseph Haydn Symphony No 104
Enrique Granados Marche Militaire
Claude Debussy Images
Edvard Grieg Olav Trygvason
In between each extract our two Bobs discuss such important matters as recording locations, The best of mono, channel tests and microphone placement, balance,multi-microphone techniques and multi-track recording, tape editing, dolby and non-dolby comparison and digital recording and the future.
As it says on the cover "Your unique invitation to join a well-known engineer and a producer talking about good recorded sound, from the early days of mono to superb digital recordings of the 1980's" Thanks for the invite gents, it was a pleasure.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-bob-auger-1068562.html
http://wiki.ibs.org.uk/audiocompendium/index.php?title=Auger
Well my inquisitive vinyl loving chums, I usually like to keep a low profile to keep out of the tabloids, but I can exclusively reveal that life at Scratchy Towers is all of the above and so much more. Here is a rare photo of myself and Mr Knackers in deep discussion, at the H.Q command centre. We've taken a short break from the non stop hedonism, in order to sort the wheat from the chaff, deciding which platters really matter and should be given a spin at the next non stop banging V.I.P rave.O.K, it's actually a rather lovely oddity of a record, featuring a conversation between the late Bob Auger, a highly respected sound engineer and Bob Hardcastle, a leading music producer (any further information on Mr Hardcastle would be appreciated)
Bob Auger worked on "a number of high-profile public occasions both in the pop and classical fields. These included as varied events as the 1969 Isle of Wight Pop Festival, the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, Frank Sinatra's charity concert at the Festival Hall and Karlheinz Stockhausen's concert in the same hall in the mid-1970s" He also turned his talents to some of the most famous pop songs to come out of Pye Records in the Sixties such as The Kinks "You Really Got Me" "Sunny Afternoon"The Animals "House of the Rising Sun" and The Spencer Davis Group "Keep on Running"
Hear This! 1981 Discourses Limited DCL 1224
Side One
Reinhold Gliere Symphony No.3 in B minor
John Stanley Six Organ Concertos Op 10 No 5 in A major
Ludwig Van Beethoven The Piano Concerto No 4 in G major
Carl Maria Von Weber Concertino in E flat Op 26
Franz Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major
Scott Joplin Extract from Sunflower Slow Drag
Side 2
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons Concerto No 3 (Autumn)
Joseph Haydn Symphony No 104
Enrique Granados Marche Militaire
Claude Debussy Images
Edvard Grieg Olav Trygvason
In between each extract our two Bobs discuss such important matters as recording locations, The best of mono, channel tests and microphone placement, balance,multi-microphone techniques and multi-track recording, tape editing, dolby and non-dolby comparison and digital recording and the future.
As it says on the cover "Your unique invitation to join a well-known engineer and a producer talking about good recorded sound, from the early days of mono to superb digital recordings of the 1980's" Thanks for the invite gents, it was a pleasure.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-bob-auger-1068562.html
http://wiki.ibs.org.uk/audiocompendium/index.php?title=Auger
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