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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | shawn campbell <thursdayinjune@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Scottish Pop rocks! Oh, and some pop that's not Scottish too. |
| Date | Mon, 1 Dec 2003 15:46:18 -0800 (PST) |
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There are two releases that are likely to make my
year-end best-of list that I don't think have been
discussed here - but I think they'd go over well with
people who enjoy the quirkier side of the pop thing.
Here are some reviews I wrote:
Ballboy - A Guide for the Daylight Hours
A more rocking Belle & Sebastian? A meaner Teenage
Fanclub? I'd be willing to use both to describe
Ballboy, a Scottish quartet hailed as indie darlings
in the UK, favorites of legendary Brit radio
personality John Peel. Lots of fuzzy guitars and
anthemic choruses, with the occasional sincere
acoustic number. Snarky titles like "You Can't Spend
Your Entire Life Hanging Around With Arseholes" and
"Sex is Boring." At points using the snark to pretend
the underlying heartbreak doesn't exist, while, in
other instances, wearing one's heart on his sleeve.
Perhaps strangely, there are a few moments on this
record that remind me of Bob Geldof's 'Vegetarians of
Love' album from the early 90's, which I liked quite a
lot.
King Creosote - Kenny & Beth's Musakal Boat Rides
A strange, quirky, folky, poppy, psychedelic, pastoral
collage of music from one of the members of Scotland's
Fence Collective (which also includes Lone Pigeon, aka
Gordon Anderson of the Beta Band, aka King Creosote's
brother). Pretty and weird and soothing and catchy.
While you can hear snatches of everything from Badly
Drawn Boy (further similarities in the "is it a guy or
is it a band?" category) to Fairport Convention, this
one really doesn't sound much like anything else out
there.
I concur with David Bash on the Redwalls (nee Pages)
record, reviewed today by David Bash - these young
guys are so much fun, and have a great love of all
things Beatles - I've been going to see them since, as
16-year-olds, they were doing sets entirely made up of
60's covers. Their major label debut will be released
in 2004 by Capitol Records, but this Undertow Records
release is strong - and catches them in their purest
form, before they are pushed to be "The Next Strokes."
And, finally, I'll also throw my support behind Wheat,
mentioned last week, for their new one, 'Per Second,
Per Second, Per Second, Every Second.' I've been
pushing these guys on people for years! A trio from
Massachusetts, they have a real pop sensibility, but
combine their hooks with atmospheric effects and a
really powerful underlying sense of melancholy. This
new one is more rocking that their previous releases,
and is on Aware Records, home of John Mayer. It was
produced by Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips fame (yes, I
know he's done plenty of other stuff too), and the
band is now managed by the Lips' manager. Maybe
they'll be the Next Big Thing, eh?
Oh, so much writing!
--Shawn
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