Frightened Rabbit Review Published

Only on Punknews, but I dunno, it makes me feel validified or something. You can read it again (if you even read it the first time) by clicking here, but only if you want to.

Yeah!

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight Review

This one didn't get published either, but I don't know, I thought it was alright. Not as good as the album is, but still.

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
8/10

This record is good. It is not the greatest ever made, it is probably not the best of the year. It breaks no new ground, and is not even the perfection of a particular sound.
But it's really good.
Frightened Rabbit are the kind of indie rock band that Pitchfork likes, with plenty of acoustic-led songs, subtle synths and horn sections that break through Jimmy Eat World style melodies, a singer who sounds like an energetic version of Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, the occaisonal country-esque guitar twang and fake drum beat, and lovely backing 'oohs' throughout. Oh, and most of it's about relationships.
It is the kind of record that, on first listen, you think 'yeah, that's alright', and then ends up on slowly declining repeat cycles before being replaced a few months later by a band doing something pretty much the same.
Not exactly the same, though, as Scott Hutchinson's distinct scottish accent is thick and smooth, just like the music, and really makes Frightened Rabbit stand out in a swarm of bands that are mostly coming out of America. It's a welcome change in an often-samey genre that leads me to believe that this particular album will put off it's inevitable replacement a bit longer than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arcade Fire or Somebody Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin did.
So yes, not the best record of the year, but it may well make the top ten. I honestly cannot fault The Midnight Organ Fight in any way. A sprinkling of different instruments and influences keep the record varied, and while it may occaisonally fade in to the background, tracks like 'Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms', where the backing vocals come, oddly, to the forefront and really drive the song, or the pounding crescendo of 'Keep Yourself Warm', or the soft acoustic glow of 'Poke', bring it snapping back to your attention.
This is definitley reccomended. Do not expect too much, and you will be pleasantly overwhelmed by something that is overwhelmingly pleasant.

Against Me! - The Acoustic EP Review

I wrote a review of Against Me!'s Acoustic EP that was released over 5 years ago now. It didn't get published anywhere because it's not very good, but here it is.

Against Me! - The Acoustic EP

9/10

No messing around: This is Against Me! at their best. Younger, passionate, still finding their way and creating something their own, and it really shows. Stripped down to nothing but acoustic guitars, bass and three voices, every song becomes a drinking song. From the sodden wails of 'Jordan's First Choice', to the jittery energy, handclaps and group sing-alongs of 'Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious', the angst of 'Reinventing Axl Rose' and the pounding rythym of 'Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong', The Acoustic EP spits out the atmosphere of drunken sessions round a kitchen table with some friends, some guitars and a good dose of some fucking punk rock spirit. There's a charm to the six songs on the disc that isn't really found in anything else the Gabel and friends have done since. The intimacy and slightly lo-fi feel of the record gives a better sense of the community that is pined for on 'Reinventing Axl Rose' than any later version recorded as Against Me! became more and more tainted by full bands, label changes and coffee shop brawls, and Gabel's lyrics especially seem louder, angrier, more passionate throughout. They are still yet to top it.
While I was disappointed in my hope for Tom Gabel's recent solo EP to be in a similar vein to his earlier work, it hardly mattters. The Acoustic EP still sounds fresh and exciting 5 years on (or 7 years, if you bought the 7" version), the songs are still hand-on-your-heart-sing-along classics, and nothing the band does will be able to erase this.
Honestly, not much needs to be said about this record other than that it is essential for any punk fan, and doubly essential for any folk punk fan. A classic.

New Myspace Blog and Flickr Uploads.

How fascinating. Check them out here and here if you care.

Flickr and Myspace Blog updates.

Today I added some more pictures to my flickr page. There's the Death Cab/Frightened Rabbit pictures as well as the ones from Halloween 2 in Northampton, which starred Jack O'Lantern and Holly & Jessica. You can also see these pictures on my new myspace blog, but they'll be in context along with words and pictures of me and my friends and flatmates doing silly things.

If you had a look and commented or whatever it is you like to do on MySpace and Flickr, I'd feel happy or something.

Death Cab For Cutie/Frightened Rabbit Live Review

Written for Punknews again. Click here to read it on that very site. But I'm posting it here too, for some reason. It's my blog and I can do what I like.

Death Cab For Cutie and Frightened Rabbit live at Brixton Academy, London, 19th November 2008.

London: the only English city Americans have heard of. The most overwhelmingly stressful transport system I've ever encountered. It's a big, confusing place and I hate going there. Unless, y'know, Death Cab are playing there.

The Brixton Carling Academy is a beautiful old theatre, with a seating balcony, a sloping floor and the remnants of ancient Greek scenery at the sides of the stage. We wandered up to the front to wait for the opening band, who shuffled on stage at about half past eight.

I'd never heard of Frightened Rabbit before, and assumed they would be an uninteresting indie pop/rock band with some jangly guitar parts and silly haircuts, as is usual for the opening band for a band of Death Cab's level (see: Sparkadia opening for Jimmy Eat World on their last UK tour). I was, thankfully, happily and overwhelmingly proven wrong by a `90s style emo/post-punk band that sounded like the very first Snow Patrol album (they were Scottish, OK? Accents that strong can be hard to get past at times) crossed with Death Cab or American Football.

The big, echoey room did no justice to the guitar parts, but made the drums and the near-constant "ooh"s of the backing vocals sounded incredibly haunting, slicing through the usual support-band chatter. They were good. Too good to be relegated to a half-hour opening set. It was like they had no right to be that good, and we made a note to pick up some copies of their records. I reccomend that you see this band if you get the chance.

By now you've probably made your mind up about Death Cab for Cutie. After six albums, they've either put out at least one that you like, or strike you as terrifyingly dull (I once heard them described as Sunny Day Real Estate-lite). I like everything they've done, but their two newest records, Plans and Narrow Stairs, failed to wow me for the most part, so I was understandably worried that I'd hear nothing but those two albums. My jaw physically dropped, then, when the first song they played was "The Employment Pages" off their second album, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, an incredible and very welcome surprise. The set list was varied enough so that any lulls from too much of the obligatory massive singles from Plans and new material from Narrow Stairs was forgiven with the breaking out of a classic from an earlier record.

The band was as tight as you'd expect from someone with as much experience/fame, never missing a beat. The only thing that was really missed were Ben Gibbard's now-absent mutton chops, and "Brothers on a Hotel Bed," the only great song off Plans. Every time Gibbard or Walla headed for the piano, I was filled with hopes, only to have them dashed seconds later. Ah well, you can't have everything,

Set highlights included the chiming, pounding "The New Year," the swirling noise of "Bixby Canyon Bridge" before they headed off before the encore. Also, mid-set, the rest of the band sat down on the edge of the drum riser to watch Gibbard pick up an acoustic guitar and play "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" under a lone spotlight.

Of course, I wish I could have stayed for the encore, but the complexities of the London Underground made this impossible (the tube station right outside the venue was CLOSED!). I wish I could have seen Death Cab four or five years ago, before their shows were filled with crowds of teenage girls screaming and pulling out camera phones as soon as "Crooked Teeth" is played. But what can you do? This was still a very good show with some great surprises. I honestly can't complain. Too much. Just a little.

Set list:

1. Employment Pages
2. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
3. The New Year
4. We Laugh Indoors
5. Crooked Teeth
6. No Sunlight
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Title Track
9. Soul Meets Body
10. I Will Follow You Into the Dark
11. I Will Possess Your Heart
12. Cath
13. A Movie Script Ending
14. Long Division
15. The Sound of Settling
16. Bixby Canyon Bridge
    Encore:
17. What Sarah Said
18. Title & Registration
19. Expo '86
20. Transatlanticism

______________________

The Frightened Rabbit album is really really good, seriously. I submitted a review of that to Punknews too, and if it doesn't get posted then I'll probably just post it here anyway. If you're wondering why I always submit stuff to Punknews, it's cause it helps to validate stuff I write, or something. I don't really know.
Anyway, here's the pictures from this gig, taken on a borrowed camera because mine was broken at the time. Click to make them bigger and stuff.

Mansions - Mr Boddy EP Review

This was originally written for Punknews.org. I've had other reviews posted on the site before, but I don't really think they're very good, so if you want to see them, you'll have to seek them out for yourself.
Click here to see it in it's original environment or whatever, and click here to download the EP, because it's a free digital release and totally worth the few MB of space it takes up.

Mansions - Mr. Boddy EP
7/10

Is originality really that important? On a site that mostly listens to bands that sound like Hot Water Music or Jawbreaker, I'd assume that it's not. Mr. Boddy, the four-track free EP by Mansions sounds a hell of a lot like Brand New and Manchester Orchestra, and to be honest it's really hard to care. After all, I like those bands, and neither of them have put out anything substantial this year anyway (Manchester's new EP only has two new songs). Something that sounds familiar, that will tide me over until the next release by either band, is definitely welcomed.

The EP kicks off with "OMG," the intro of which sounds suspiciously like "Soco Amaretto Lime" untill it explodes into wailing, distorted guitar noise and a pounding chorus. The rest of the tracks flow on perfectly, utilizing, among other things, fake drum beats, whirring synths and a hint of piano here and there to give the record a thick and textured feel. The vocals often get swallowed up in crescendoes that build up, and then fade away, over and over, getting a little further each time, and it sounds great.

Christopher Browder sings in a voice that sounds quite a bit like Manchester Orchestra's Andy Hull, The intro to the second track reminds me of "Sleeper 1972," and while the lyrics are not quite as deep or subtle as those of the Orchestra or Brand New, they follow the same sort of themes and really do sound like they come from the heart.

The fact that Browder has done everything on this record himself is also worth mentioning; when you bear that fact in mind, listening to Mr. Boddy gives the image of a guy encased in his own little world with his favourite records, the ones that have inspired him to make music of his own.

In short, Mansions has a lot of potential to do something amazing, and I can't wait to hear what he does next. And seeing how this EP is free, there's pretty much no reason why you shouldn't give it a listen.