Coastal Haze – Summer Mix
Click cover to listen at Mixcloud.
Yo La Tengo – Beach Party Tonight // Atlas Sound – The Light That Failed // Real Estate – Pool Swimmers // Wild Nothing – Drifter // Broken Social Scene – Looks Just Like The Sun // Tamaryn – Sandstone // Toro Y Moi – Minors // White Hinterland – No Logic // Washed Out – Feel It All Around // Tortoise – Glass Museum // Brian Eno & Harold Budd – The Chill Air
TRT: 38:09
So we’re roughly at the midway point of Summer, approaching that point where the sunsets are more intense, the tones more sepia-tinged, the walks a little more languid. Or maybe that’s just what comes to mind thanks to some recent tracks by US artists like Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, Wild Nothing and Real Estate. Listening to these songs endlessly over the last few months brought to mind songs that have always had that indistinct, sleepy suburban Summer feel to me, such as ‘Looks Just Like The Sun’ by Broken Social Scene and pretty much the whole of Yo La Tengo’s underrated Summer Sun record.
Anyway, enjoy. First time using Mixcloud, seems rather brilliant. Show announcements on their way!
Note on the cover: Image taken from a vintage American slide photograph. See it at View From Other Side, our online gallery of found slides, many of which have featured in our artwork.
Playlist: This Is Tomorrow Presents Toro Y Moi
All the songs we played between the bands at the awesome Toro Y Moi show last Monday, hosted by This Is Tomorrow.
This Is Tomorrow Presents Toro Y Moi
Appearances might suggest we’ve disappeared/ given up/ died, but you’d be wrong – we’re just enjoying the summer and planning what to do with Colour next. It was a real pleasure to DJ the Soul Food Project launch a few weeks back and we’re super excited to be playing a few songs at the Hare and Hounds on Monday, accompanying the blissed out electronica of Californian Toro Y Moi. Soulful and kaleidoscopic, his debut Causers of This is a collective favourite ’round these parts. The perfect OST to a suburban summer.
Kicking off from 8pm, the show features support from 35 Seconds and Of People Of Pandas. More details here.
Video: Toro Y Moi – ‘Talamak’
Playlist: Soul Food Project Launch
Saturday’s launch of the Soul Food Project at The Hare and Hounds was lovely: sets by some of Birmingham’s best folkies in the afternoon and seriously delicious food from the kitchen. Inbetween, James Nash and I played these songs:
It was a real joy to play some songs in a laid-back fashion; it’s something we’re looking in to doing more of. Suggestions very welcome.
Photo from Duke University Archives
New epic45 7″
Daylight Ghosts b/w Any Second Now
(2010, MakeMineMusic)
Our good buddies epic45 are set to release a limited run of lavish sevens as a companion to last year’s mini album In All The Empty Houses. The band have used the medium effectively, splitting the core sonic elements of their sound down the middle, with the A-side an electronic re-recording of that record’s ‘Daylight Ghosts’, b/w an acoustic take on Depeche Mode’s ‘Any Second Now’.
Their words:
The idea was to indulge in our shared love of eighties pop, which was such a large part of our childhoods. So the version of Daylight Ghosts on here was created mainly using synths and the B side is stripped down, mainly acoustic version of a Depeche Mode Song.
Next week also sees a limited reissue of Empty Houses, featuring a companion DVD of six rather stunning videos, one for every song. Here’s the video for the original version of ‘Daylight Ghosts’:
Daylight Ghosts 7″ and In All The Empty Houses are available from Norman Records.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy & The Cairo Gang
The Wonder Show of the World (Domino, 2010)
One of the joys of Will Oldham’s extensive back catelogue is the endless reinvention and reinterpretation he puts his songs and motifs through, often with a varied cast of collaborators. It shows their robustness and gives a timeless feel to the work of a distinct, unique individual, emersing them in the canon of American folk music.
Every so often a Bonnie Prince release is apended with an ampersand, making for some of his most intriguing albums. 2005′s Superwolf was a collaboration with Matt Sweeney, whose minimal, taut guitar gave Oldham’s words room to breath, or rather sigh, creating one of the most atmospheric records of the last decade.
The Cairo Gang pull off a similar trick on this year’s The Wonder Show of The World. The duo of Emmett Kelly and Shahzad Ismaily, who both played on Lie Down In The Light and Beware, strip things back from the busy compositions of those records to allow Oldham’s inimitable wordplay to come to the fore. Thematically, Oldham is on the same page, detailing the desire for domestic bliss and the turbulence of those most precious relationships that threatens it. After twenty records or more, it’s well established that he’s a master of juxtaposing pain and humour. ‘Troublesome Houses’ features one of Oldham’s finest vocal performances and is the most ornate song here, detailing his wife’s anger at the wayward nature she can taste on his mouth, while on ‘The Sounds Are Always Begging’, a partner chops up their bed, but he’s too turned on to stop her.
Picking highlights here is a little like pulling strands from a sweater, but ‘Go Folks, Go’ stands out a little for its minimalism, evoking a casual, congenial moment between friends: “I got gal and I got friends, like I never thought I’d do”. I imagine whisky, laughter and the late day sun while Oldham and his cohorts revel in the joy of our earthiest pleasures.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy & The Cairo Gang play St. John The Baptist Church, Coventry on 2 August.
Video: ‘With Cornstalks or Among Them’/ ‘The Sounds Are Always Begging’ Live at Monster Island Basement, Brooklyn
Project: View From Other Side
Howdy. I’m pleased to let you know about the first project we’re working on this summer, which has roots in the photography that lies at the heart of many of our poster designs.
View From Other Side is a gallery of ‘found’ images in the form of slides. The central motivation is simply that these often beautiful, always fascinating, images are rare or even unique, so it seemed a shame to leave them languishing in a box on the shelf.
Many of the slides are amateur snapshots, each containing wonderful, suggested stories of the everyday – some also contain iconic images of their time. Stemming from a fascination with the concept of nostalgia and by the question: can you be nostalgic for a space and time that you’ve never experienced, and never could?
View From Other Side will be updated every Monday – Friday. Do let us know what you think!
Band of Horses
Infinite Arms (2010, Fat Possum/ Columbia Records)
Band of Horses‘ 2006 debut Everything All The Time was a minor revelation. Propulsive, luminescent songs that managed to be at once intimate and thrillingly grandiose. Standouts like ‘The Funeral’ and ‘The Great Salt Lake’ built from minimal guitar underpinning Ben Bridwell’s tender, reverb-soaked vocals to incendiary, chambered instrumentals.
It proved to be a timely release: American indie was riding high as a new generation of soundtrack execs scoured blogs looking to add emotional weight to teen dramas like The OC. Band of Horses pastoral classic rock was the perfect fit. And yet, the group weren’t a breakthrough success like their peers Death Cab For Cutie and The Shins. 2007′s Cease To Begin didn’t veer far from the route plotted by their debut, despite a shift in lineup. It felt like a great companion piece to that record but not one that would prick the ears of those who weren’t already listening.
Three years on and it’s clear Bridwell is eager to position his band amongst those rare acts that maintain the loyalty of early fans while shifting thousands of units through Wal-Mart and Starbucks. For Infinite Arms, they’ve struck a hybrid record deal with both indie stalwarts Fat Possum and major dinosaurs Columbia to achieve the best of both worlds. We’ve also seen all the contrivances of an ‘event’ record; attempts to create online buzz, timely soundtrack spots and of course, the over-priced boxed set. Coupled with talk from Bridwell of this being the first real Band of Horses record with a permanent line-up rather than just a vehicle for his songwriting, you would expect this to represent a major shift in their sound.
And yet, Infinite Arms isn’t radically different from its predecessors. ‘Factory’ is a lovely slow-burning opener that picks up where Cease To Begin left off – all woozy processed strings and lilting vocals. The guitars chime a little brighter on lead singles ‘Laredo’ and ‘Compliments’ and the sound is tighter, one made more for highways and epic vistas than winding woodland roads and dilapidated barns. Perfect for radio, then. Problem is, by turning up the brightness they’ve somewhat bleached out the darker corners and subtle moments that came through with repeated listens, making them much more than My Morning Jacket-lite. The songs on Side 2 occasionally lack atmosphere and feel slight, particularly those led by Bridwell’s new bandmates – the by-numbers college pop of ‘Dilly’ and barely there acoustic mumble ‘Evening Kitchen’.
Infinite Arms is by no means a bad record – it’s eminently listenable, but feels like a homogenous, diet version of their past material, lacking the elusive spark that ignited their older songs. Maybe these songs will catch fire when they play Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Hall tomorrow night.
MP3: ‘Factory‘ (sign-up required)
Colour DJs at Soul Food Project Launch
Soul Food Project is the new culinary endeavour from music promoter Matt Beck of This Is Tomorrow and friends. Aiming to put a little soul in the bowl of visitors to the Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath, they will be serving up dishes inspired by the diverse cooking traditions of the Americas.
To celebrate their launch, SFP are holding an all day shindig on Saturday 19 June, featuring live music from a host of Birmingham-based artists including Colour veterans Simon Fox and Ben Calvert. We’ll be DJing alongside Sweat, This Is Tomorrow and Takin’ Care of Business. Of course, you’ll also be able to sample their new menu, which features jambalaya, fried chicken and the most immense burgers Birmingham has yet seen.
Entry is free and the full live line-up and times are here (and on Facebook).
Elevate Me Later
An Alternative Best Of Pavement
Spotify Playlist
The Pavement curated All Tomorrow’s Parties is looming large this weekend, providing an opportunity to revisit their remarkable back catalogue. It’s an understatement to say that a shared love of Pavement has been a main ingredient in the glue that has held Colour together over the years.
I came to the band quite late via a bargain bin copy of their fourth full-length Brighten The Corners, which is often regarded as their most ‘refined’ album and their last recording session as a cohesive unit – Terror Twilight is seen, perhaps unfairly, as a Malkmus solo album with the token Spiral Stairs number on it. I guess I have a predilection for their cleaner, more melodic songs because I fell for Brighten The Corners first. That distinct guitar sound make me nostalgic for lens-flared, ’90s West Coast suburban summers I never lived, while Malkmus’s laconic vocals and the semi-cryptic genius of his wordplay still amaze me.
Domino released Quarantine The Past in March to coincide with the band’s run of reunion shows. Obviously there’s some crossover with my list and I’ve definitely missed off some classics, but these are my absolute favourites.
Elevate Me Later: An Alternative Best Of Pavement
Box Elder // Summer Babe (Winter Version) // Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17 // Here // Elevate Me Later // Range Life // Flux=Rad // Silence Kit // All My Friends // Rattled by the Rush // Grounded // Grave Architecture // Shady Lane / J vs. S // Starlings In The Slipstream // StereoType Slowly // We Are Underused // The Killing Moon // Spit On A Stranger // Major Leagues // …And Carrot Rope
What songs are you hoping to hear Pavement play at ATP or their London shows?
