Since my long post a few weeks ago with most of the tracks off 'High violet' by The National (still over 6 damn weeks from release), I have found two more tracks live on Youtube.
The first is 'Conversation 16', which I really like, and somehow reminds me of the sound (pastoral rock is the phrase that keeps springing oddly to mind) they introduced last year on the wonderful 'So far around the bend'; the horns and melody, vocals and flow are just lovely, and the drums are there as always to keep it different and stop it retreating into excessive prettiness. I also love the way, in this live version, the crowd gets fooled into thinking it has stopped, when it has yet some more to run, the kind of moment you will only get on a pre-release live version from a much loved band.
The second is 'Afraid of everyone' and this one also has me really excited, with the two featured here being among my favourites off the album so far. I love the slow but dramatic start, the way he keeps repeating the title line, such a vulnerable line, and the way the song gradually builds up and up, forcing the use of the word 'epic'. I also welcome joyously the return of the chanty end of a National song, so much missed since its peak in 'Secret meeting' from 'Alligator':
So, excitement still building in a manner no medical professional would recommend as safe. The released MP3 version of 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' must be in the top 10 all-time played on my iPod already, and I love it, having eventually come to regard it as 'Guest room's epic big brother, having that same majestic (slightly New Order/Cure) propulsion and restrained fury. In the past many National songs have sounded (in a good way) intense, closed-off and claustrophobic ('my mind's come loose inside it's shell') but this time I believe the album will feel widescreen and epic to a degree not previously associated with them.
31 days left, and counting.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Some 'old' Irish Music for St Patrick's Day
Just a quick post tonight, but it is Saint Patrick's Day, and I thought I should mark the occasion with a few Irish music videos, as I did this day last year. This year, I thought I would delve a bit backwards, to the 1980s and 1990s, and some perhaps less well known (at least outside Ireland) songs.
The first is 'Friends in time', by the Golden Horde, which was from the mid-1980s, although the TV clip (perhaps deliberately?) looks like it came from the 1950s. I don't remember much of the Golden Horde bar this one magnificent, wonderful song (quite popular at weddings, apparently!), but it is enough that they should never be forgotten:
I do remember seeing 'the Horde' one or twice at outside concerts in Dublin's parks (called Larks in the Park), but the star of those shows, in my memory, was always the Hothouse Flowers, famously known in Dublin for being labelled by Rolling Stone magazine, no less, as the best unsigned band in the world. Their gigs, which i saw a lot of, were sort of mad free-wheeling things full of passion, energy and skill, which they somehow lost on record, although their debut single 'Love don't work this way' (with Maria Doyle Kennedy on duet vocals, not the version that appeared on their debut album 'People') remains one of my favourite Irish songs ever. I could not find that one on Youtube, but did find their summer classic 'Don't go', with a video I fondly remember from (ahem) the Eurovision, which I watched that year only because it was in Dublin, and this video (or perhaps a longer version) was shown at the interval:
The first is 'Friends in time', by the Golden Horde, which was from the mid-1980s, although the TV clip (perhaps deliberately?) looks like it came from the 1950s. I don't remember much of the Golden Horde bar this one magnificent, wonderful song (quite popular at weddings, apparently!), but it is enough that they should never be forgotten:
I do remember seeing 'the Horde' one or twice at outside concerts in Dublin's parks (called Larks in the Park), but the star of those shows, in my memory, was always the Hothouse Flowers, famously known in Dublin for being labelled by Rolling Stone magazine, no less, as the best unsigned band in the world. Their gigs, which i saw a lot of, were sort of mad free-wheeling things full of passion, energy and skill, which they somehow lost on record, although their debut single 'Love don't work this way' (with Maria Doyle Kennedy on duet vocals, not the version that appeared on their debut album 'People') remains one of my favourite Irish songs ever. I could not find that one on Youtube, but did find their summer classic 'Don't go', with a video I fondly remember from (ahem) the Eurovision, which I watched that year only because it was in Dublin, and this video (or perhaps a longer version) was shown at the interval:
That is one song which will always be evocative for me of an Irish summer of my youth ('the smell of fresh-cut grass, filling up my senses') and the other is this one, even older, called 'Summer in Dublin', by Bagatelle:
Hopping forward a few years brings me to 'Arclight', by the Fat Lady Sings, with a lovely unusual melody which lingers affectionately many years on. I saw them live a few times too, and they were great, and Nick Kelly (who I have also seen solo a few times, and whose e-mailing list I am still on) always seemed one of the nicest guys in Irish music:
I will finish off a few years later with 'Eve the apple of my eye' by Bell X1, an absolutely almost perfect song:
So, it may be raining, the country may be in tatters, the economy may be bust beyond repair, but on this national holiday, it is nice to remember we will always have our music, and maybe soon that is all we will have!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
In frenzied anticipation of High Violet
I do not know of any other band today besides the National for which I would get really really excited by the prospect of a new album, but the word on 'High Violet', due on May 11, really has me counting days and weeks. This is the kind of excitement I guess I had a long time ago for lots of bands. I can remember friends of mine being incredibly excited about 'The Joshua Tree' in 1987, and sitting in a living room listening to a sneak preview of four of the tracks on a radio show in a state of second-hand euphoria.
Now I can pretty much know how they felt. Obviously, I became aware of the fact that The National had a new album coming through their e-mailing list months back, and heard about the title and release date a few weeks ago. Then, a few days ago the track list was released on the album website:
http://highviolet.com/
That track listing is as follows:
Terrible Love
Sorrow
Anyone's Ghost
Little Faith
Afraid of Everyone
Bloodbuzz Ohio
Lemonworld
Runaway
Conversation 16
England
Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
Over the last 2 weeks, I have come to realise (even before the track list came out) that there were loads of the tracks on-line, and I spent many hours at work, doing computer stuff while youtube clips played repeatedly in the background. Having the traclist made the searching far more systematic and easy, and now I have 8 out of 11 tracks found, which I have put in below, in order, if for no other reason than to make it easier for me (and maybe others) to have them all in the same place.
Track 1, 'Terrible love', was the first one I found on-line, probably the lowest hanging fruit through Google, and the clip is from the Jimmy Fallon show. First impressions of the song are that it is consistent with all the signals about the album being harder than Boxer, and I like it. It is quite a statement of intent to to move from the piano start to 'Fake empire' starting 'Boxer' in gentle mode, to the loud guitars here
The next track is 'Sorrow', which has not quite grabbed me yet the way some of the others have (although the guitar line is lovely), but I will give it time:
'Afraid of everyone' is not available out there yet (but i will paste it here when I get it!).
'Blood buzz Ohio' is so far my favourite track, perhaps predictably given the great drumming at the start; nothing I have heard so far has other than added to my conviction that Bryan Davendorf may be my favourite musician in the world today. This one really got into my head this week, particularly the line 'I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees', for some reason.
'Lemonworld' is not available yet either, and hopfully my immediate word-association wth U2 will not be too closely borne out!
There are, on the other hand, a number of versions of 'Runaway' out there, of which the below seems to be the best, being in a radio studio as opposed to recorded live; this is a lovely one, very reminiscent of 'Racing like a pro' from 'Boxer':
'Conversation 16' is not available yet either either, but 'England' is and again I really like this one. It does display the band's habit of building songs around quite repetitive lyrical constructs, and he song does go on maybe a little long before it changes gear towards the end and some really cool growling starts. This album is not going out on set of gentler ones like 'Boxer' did, as this breaks up the slowdown which 'Runaway' started:
The final track is 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks', which has also really worked its way into my mind (has an unusually - for the National - sing-along chorus I can imagine working really well in concert), and reminds me a lot of the mid-paced ones on Alligator, such as 'Karen' and 'Daughters of the Soho riots'.
I found a review of a show with much of the new material, including several of the clips above, at:http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2010-3-12-the-national-preview-new-high-violet-material-at-tiny-bell-house-show
and some interviews about it at:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/03/the-nationals-high-violet-get-release-date.html
and with Matt himself at:
http://pitchfork.com/news/37727-nationals-matt-berninger-talks-new-lp/
I will keep this post updated as it would be nice to get the full album in advance. It is really wierd to get to know the songs this way, and I cannot think of any other album I have got to know live first before the album came out - basically, I do not think this could have happened before the Internet and the efforts of so many people at concerts with video cameras and access to Youtube. I am sure the real versions may well sound quite different, particularly when studio effects and flourishes that will not come across live are present; also most of the live versions tend to have the vocals a bit buried in the mix, making Matt's lyrics even harder to decipher than usual. I have been a little disappointed to see that the songs to date do not, in my view, follow the really interesting direction hinted at on 'So far around the bend' from 'Dark was the night', which was somehow non-rock and almost unique-sounding, whereas these songs are generally more direct.
Anyway, I am sure I will love the album versions, and it will be nice to get to know the real things after this strange on-line courtship. Click Here to Read More..
Powerful dreams indeed
In 1990, a college classmate gave me a tape of an album by a new Dublin band which he had bought but did not think much of; I gave it a listen and it blew me away. It was 'Immigrants, emigrants and me' (a title just as appropriate in Ireland now as then at the end of the bleak 1980s) by Power of Dreams, who were only an average of 18 when they recorded it. On the surface it was conventional guitar pop with a fondness for the loud-quiet-loud cycle, but somehow it worked its way into my head and my heart, with a clear maturity belying its creators' youth and a recurrin lyrical sadness, and tunes that burrowed into your consciousness and made themselves at home.
I went to see Power of Dreams at least once then, when I moved to Cork in late 1990, in the gone-but-not-forgotten club called Sir Henry's, when I thought they were great but way louder than on record. I also bought 'Positivity' and '2 Hell with Common Sense', their next albums, which both had good songs but did not match the majesty of the debut.
Years passed then, as they do, and I thought frequently and fondly of Power of Dreams, and on several occasions made efforts to find their classic debut on CD, scouring shops and websites to no avail. I even tried to use one of those yokes for transferring cassettes to MP3 to recover my overworn tape, but the sound was crap. Then, around a year ago, I checked (as I had many times before) iTunes to find 'Immigrants' and 'Common sense' there, and bought both in an instant before it turned out to be a mirage or hallucination. They were back in my life in proper sound quality and I listened quite a bit to the former over the months since.
Then, last December, I found them on Myspace, as I started to dabble there myself, and through their page discovered they were playing the Pavillion in Cork on the date I now call 'last night', and of course I went, bringing a friend new to their charms.
Support was provided by Tallulah does the hula, hu I knew my name only, but actually really liked, despite them being of a sort that does not feature much on my iPod: spiky, (almost) all-girl, old-fashioned (sixties meets eighties?). They swapped instruments, vocal duties and perhaps clothes (or maybe I was just confused) throughout, with 2 synths front and centre giving the sound a richness and their drummer was excellent. They were not favoured by a sound mix which buried the vocals too low (a problem also encountered by the headliners) but I was definetely impressed and want to find out more. A clip of them (no idea of the song name but it was one of their best of the evening) follows (apologies for faily poor video quality, as I had a great view from a seat on the balcony, but the N95's video zoom was somewhat stretched):
Then, after a reasonably long support set, Power of Dreams came on. It is not too many bands who can be doing a 20-year anniversary tour and still be younger then me (let's face it, they're not exactly the Rolling Stones!) so they did not look particularly elderly or anything, but my distinct memories of lots of hair and possibly red dreadlocks from Sir Henry's were left in the past as far more sensible haircuts prevailed, although a very 1980s studded belt may have been in evidence.
They started with a blistering 'The joke's on me' and the years fell away; assorted other cliches could be inserted here to make the point that they sounded just like they did back then. By the third song it had dawned on the that they were playing 'immigrants' IN ORDER, which seemed quite wonderful to me (although this rule became far more flexible as the gig went on and other songs were inserted, one was moved earlier, and the best was kept for last). Anyway, the first POD clip I have is 'Does it matter?':
They then came to one of my favourites, which is 'Never told you', which began this time with a savage drum assault (their drummer was superb throughout), and which I always love for starting very heavy (I think singer Craig Walker may have introduced it with some line about Megadeath), rising to a soaring chorus, and the slowing to a really cool vocal interplay towards the end. It cruises with uttter confidence through several songs in 3 minutes, and I always loved it:
Around that point in both album and gig came 'Stay', which in many ways encapsulates their sound, with guitars roaring but always in perfect fealty to the melody and vocals:
Later came the slowest and loveliest moment of both gig and CD, 'Maire I don't love you', which always struck me as having lyrics far more convincing and lifeworn than their years suggested possible:
I went to see Power of Dreams at least once then, when I moved to Cork in late 1990, in the gone-but-not-forgotten club called Sir Henry's, when I thought they were great but way louder than on record. I also bought 'Positivity' and '2 Hell with Common Sense', their next albums, which both had good songs but did not match the majesty of the debut.
Years passed then, as they do, and I thought frequently and fondly of Power of Dreams, and on several occasions made efforts to find their classic debut on CD, scouring shops and websites to no avail. I even tried to use one of those yokes for transferring cassettes to MP3 to recover my overworn tape, but the sound was crap. Then, around a year ago, I checked (as I had many times before) iTunes to find 'Immigrants' and 'Common sense' there, and bought both in an instant before it turned out to be a mirage or hallucination. They were back in my life in proper sound quality and I listened quite a bit to the former over the months since.
Then, last December, I found them on Myspace, as I started to dabble there myself, and through their page discovered they were playing the Pavillion in Cork on the date I now call 'last night', and of course I went, bringing a friend new to their charms.
Support was provided by Tallulah does the hula, hu I knew my name only, but actually really liked, despite them being of a sort that does not feature much on my iPod: spiky, (almost) all-girl, old-fashioned (sixties meets eighties?). They swapped instruments, vocal duties and perhaps clothes (or maybe I was just confused) throughout, with 2 synths front and centre giving the sound a richness and their drummer was excellent. They were not favoured by a sound mix which buried the vocals too low (a problem also encountered by the headliners) but I was definetely impressed and want to find out more. A clip of them (no idea of the song name but it was one of their best of the evening) follows (apologies for faily poor video quality, as I had a great view from a seat on the balcony, but the N95's video zoom was somewhat stretched):
Then, after a reasonably long support set, Power of Dreams came on. It is not too many bands who can be doing a 20-year anniversary tour and still be younger then me (let's face it, they're not exactly the Rolling Stones!) so they did not look particularly elderly or anything, but my distinct memories of lots of hair and possibly red dreadlocks from Sir Henry's were left in the past as far more sensible haircuts prevailed, although a very 1980s studded belt may have been in evidence.
They started with a blistering 'The joke's on me' and the years fell away; assorted other cliches could be inserted here to make the point that they sounded just like they did back then. By the third song it had dawned on the that they were playing 'immigrants' IN ORDER, which seemed quite wonderful to me (although this rule became far more flexible as the gig went on and other songs were inserted, one was moved earlier, and the best was kept for last). Anyway, the first POD clip I have is 'Does it matter?':
They then came to one of my favourites, which is 'Never told you', which began this time with a savage drum assault (their drummer was superb throughout), and which I always love for starting very heavy (I think singer Craig Walker may have introduced it with some line about Megadeath), rising to a soaring chorus, and the slowing to a really cool vocal interplay towards the end. It cruises with uttter confidence through several songs in 3 minutes, and I always loved it:
Around that point in both album and gig came 'Stay', which in many ways encapsulates their sound, with guitars roaring but always in perfect fealty to the melody and vocals:
Later came the slowest and loveliest moment of both gig and CD, 'Maire I don't love you', which always struck me as having lyrics far more convincing and lifeworn than their years suggested possible:
The later stages of the gig included far more non-Immigrants material (only one of which was not familiar to me), including the great 'Untitled' from '2 Hell with Common Sense', and a song which definetely included a lyrical snatch of the Cure's 'Just like heaven' ('show me how you do it, and I promise you, I promise you, I'll run away with you') and, on the same theme, a rather unexpected cover version of the wonderful 'There is a light that never goes out' by the Smiths.
They did two encores, one of three songs and one of two, and, as I have hinted before, kept the finest wine of all for last, launching into a version of '100 ways to kill a love' which lifted the roof off:
It seemed clear to me that the audience were mainly men like me who, of an age like me, who got the albums at the same time as me, and may even been in Sir Henry's with me those years ago. This was an audience of long-time fans reconnecting with their youth and, much as I would have loved more young fans to be there and discover how this sort of music can sound when it is really really done right, there was a lovely sense of pride and nostalgia there last night which I found quite touching. Many songs had full audience participation vocally, from folks who knew every word, and I suspect some of those jumping up and down near the stage had not done that for quite a while. The clip of '100 ways' above captures some of this, which really reached its climax as the gig did.
Afterwards, I went mooching for merchandise and met Craig (I missed a CD of the anniversary version of 'Immigrants', with demos, B-sides etc, which I must now hunt for, but did get his solo album and their long-lost final CD from 1994). He was very nice as I unloaded some Murphys-stoked nostalgia on him, and told him that if they had only played 'She's gone' (from 'Common sense') it would have been perfect, but it really was close to perfect. He also said they would release some new material next year, so maybe it is not too late for the new generation to find out what they never knew they were missing.
Well done lads, welcome back, and thanks for bridging the gap from now to then.
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