COOLRUNNINGS: Babes Forever

While checking out Walsh's Smoke Weed About It last week, I discovered COOLRUNNINGS, who have also made their music available for free download on draculahorse.com. There are two EPs available, Buffalo and Babes Forever, the second of which I'm particularly enjoying at the moment.

The record is saturated with buxom rhythms that tremor through the body, initially feeling like the very best of music that you listen to for the pure sound of the thing. When the voice emerges, however, the lyrics are incisive and poetic, and seem to have originated in the same heart as the pulse.

In an interview for metropulse.com, Brandon Biondo has attributed the band's success to the face that they allow their music to be downloaded for free, and said of the music industry, "it’s not really that important anymore, and it’s awesome that now it’s all in the hands of the people who are actually really into music,” with which I wholeheartedly agree.

The band will be playing a run of shows this autumn with Millionyoung and Sunglasses.

SAN DIMAS OASIS

BABES FOREVER

TRIPPIN BALLS AT DUR WEINERSCHNITZEL

Mountain Man: Glasgow Academy

Last night I saw Mountain Man supporting Jonsi at the Academy. The set was short, but every song was breathtaking. The venue was much larger than The Deaf Institute, where I saw the band in June, and, obviously, the majority of the audience didn't come for the support, but their presence completely commanded the hall's attention. And I'd have to say that, in the past three months, Mountain Man have grown even tighter, which I wouldn't have believed possible.

There is something so enchantingly sublime about watching this band play. Made the Harbour is seductive and consuming, but even that does not compare to the live renditions, actually seeing in the faces that which you were so sure you heard on the record.

This is a recording of Dog Song. It is absolutely beautiful, just listen to those last wails.

Paper Bird: Daytrotter Session

Paper Bird, a seven-piece band from Denver, Colorado, have just recorded a new Daytrotter session which is available for free download and accompanied by a lovely article from Sean Moeller. The session was the first I'd heard of the band and it has me enamoured. The tracks are awash with zesty rhythms, the legion of vocalists staunchly harmonising with each other as their myriad instruments are tooted, beaten and plucked.

Paper Bird's second full length album, When The River Took Flight, was released at the end of July completely independently and can be purchased from the band's official site.

Francois & The Atlas Mountains

Francois Marry, originally from Saintes, France, has just released Plaine Inondable on Fence Records, one of my favourite labels, based in Fife. This means that, despite being based in Bristol, he spends a lot of time in Scotland and I'm hoping to catch him on 9th September at the beginning of this smattering of UK dates:

09/09 - Stereo, Glasgow
10/09 - Roxy Rooms, Edinburgh
11/09 - Kings Place, London
12/09 - Stanmer House, Brighton

I'm really looking forward to the Stereo gig because there are quite a few other Fence artists playing, such as Rozi Plain, which will be quite interesting to watch. For now, here is the video to Francois' Be Water, which apparently features 'hand painted watercolour animation'. I'm not entirely sure what that is, but I like it.

Sweet Lights

 Sweet Lights is Shai Halperin, a solo artist from Philadelphia whose début album will be released 10th October. It can be listened to in its entirety on Bandcamp and can be purchased for $5. Four of the tracks can be downloaded completely free. That's very reasonable.

As well as writing and performing the album, Halperin also mixed and produced the album together with Jeff Zeigler, who runs the Uniform Recording studio. The songs are melancholic and melodic. I particularly like Waterwell and A Hundred Needle Pins. As far as i can tell, Sweet Lights seem to be unsigned at the moment, but hopefully they'll be some shows in the run up to the album release.

Mp3s:
Message on the Wire
Are We Gonna Work It Out?
Red Lights
Waterwell

tooth ache.

I was introduced to tooth ache by Mountain Man's live cover of Holy Father and was more than intrigued enough to look the fellow Vermont artist up. I'm particularly taken with the song Eurydice, in which the voice is as haunting as the illusions to the myth, which describe ones inability to stop from slipping back into hell once touched by it.

'Every night it's a deadly fever/ and if i am taken like eurydice/ if you can't pull me from this hell/ you'll have to drag the death out of me. '

Eurydice is set for release on 1st September, and  can be listened to on Bandcamp, along with previous releases, including a full length album, Illogically Chronic, which can actually be downloaded for free.  I think the album is very good and has grown on me with each listen, especially Eyelids and and the gently jaunty, playful Dry.

Eurydice:

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

I'm over a week late with this post and I'm sure there have been countless others on this album, but it needs to be here. I have been in love with Arcade Fire since I first heard Laika in 2004. Funeral was released on my 15th birthday, and I bought it with money I'd received. Six years later and I'm listening to their third album. That's a long time to be enamoured with a band. Maybe not in terms of a lifetime, but, as a twenty year old, they are one of very few who have survived in my heart this long.

My taste improved drastically when I 15: I discovered The Smiths, there's no going back from there. Apart from Arcade Fire, there's only a handful bands I still listen to that pre-date this time. I can only think of The Libertines, Pixies, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I really think that The Suburbs will need a few more listens before I can know just how great it is. My thoughts at the moment are that it's quite different for Arcade Fire, but it's still one hell of an record. I doubt that anything will touch Funeral for me, that album is just perfect, just absolutely fucking perfect. Ten beauteous songs, each and everyone sending chill ripples through my body. But this is a post about The Suburbs, and The Suburbs is not Funeral, that's important to remember. This is not a life and death album. It's not the work of a band desperate to establish themselves, desperate to be what they know they can.

Somehow, since Neon Bible's release three years ago, Arcade Fire have become colossal by doing hardly anything at all. (How did that happen?) This is the work of a band who have achieved their goals. I think this gives as much as it takes away. The Suburbs doesn't ooze childlike joy with every note, but perhaps that's something that can only happen right at the beginning. I like how the album is flecked with references to itself; this is always a winner with me, I'm obsessed with albums that sound like albums, rather than just a collection of songs.

Also, Win's voice has developed; it's often a lot softer and has a real beauty which few male voices do. I especially like Deep Blue, Rococo and We Used To Wait, while Spawl II recaptures that crude energy that embodied Funeral, although I can't shake the feeling of being reminded of Talking Head's The Road To Nowhere.

I have tickets for me and a friend to see the band in December at Manchester Central, where I had the good fortune to see Morrissey twice in 2006. The last time I saw Arcade Fire I was on the barrier at Manchester Apollo, a 3000 capacity venue, so needless to say this will be quite a different experience.

The Suburbs is available for physical purchase and digital download from www.arcadefire.com