acb @acb@linernotes.club
I comment about music here, and other things elsewhere.
LDN ← MEL
Looks like Let’s Eat Grandma are on Bandcamp now, for those who don’t like lossy MP3s or ordering discs from Amazon and then ripping them:
Currently listening to the last Them Are Us Too release, Amends. This was going to be an album, which they were working on before the tragic death of Cash Askew in the Ghost Ship fire; the surviving member, Kennedy Ashlyn, with the help of a few others, eventually worked the demos into this final release. It’s a bit short, of course, but makes up for that with an epic grandeur: imagine the Cocteau Twins or Love Spirals Downwards, only with mid/late-80s Moroder/Badalamenti-style electronics in lieu of the shoegaze guitars. Were it not for tragic circumstance, one could imagine Them Are Us Too following in the footsteps of, say, Austra or Zola Jesus, or perhaps making an appearance in Twin Peaks.
The café put on some Motown soul classics; immediately, the bloke two tables away started tapping his foot and drumming on his jeans. Motown: it gets the dads moving.
Also picked up the 2-disc rerelease of Max Richter’s “The Blue Notebooks”; most of the bulk of the packaging is taken up by an empty blue notebook:
I’m really enjoying the new Let’s Eat Grandma album; somewhat slicker than their first one (PC Music’s SOPHIE and the Horrors’ Faris Badwan help out on two tracks, including “Hot Pink” which starts off sounding like a Kero Kero Bonito song), though no less an idiosyncratic voice. And they got that long, vaguely Underworldesque track they do live in; it’s called “Donnie Darko”.
Also, best use of a purring cat on a record since Loney Dear’s “The Year Of River Fontana” CD-R.
For so long we Morrissey fans gave him the benefit of the doubt. Even now, we like to believe it is simply Morrissey who has changed. And that is true to an extent. But the warning signs were always there:
Former Morrissey fans to stage anti-racism party in Manchester:
I guess it's fairly obvious when one considers that both Coil and Momus wrote about the hermetic hermeneutics of desire (to use one of Momus' phrases), albeit from somewhat different angles.
Listening to Coil’s “Love’s Secret Domain” for the first time in some 15-20 years; and the thing that struck me was how uncannily well some of it would sit alongside Creation-era Momus.
The National Museum of Scotland’s new exhibition on the history of Scottish pop looks interesting and timely:
Interesting interview with Gail O’Hara about Chickfactor, the indiepop zine she co-founded in the 90s and still edits:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickfactor-zine-indie-music_us_5b23e1dfe4b0a0a5277b1fa4
Top last.fm artists of the past week: Cigarettes After Sex (20), Tigercats (20), Akira Kosemura (17), Client Liaison (11), Montero (11)
Remember that article a few years ago taking emo to task for being a wretched hive of toxic manbaby misogyny? Well, apparently SoundCloud sing-rap now fulfils that role:
https://www.stereogum.com/2001216/juice-wrld-toxic-masculinity/franchises/status-aint-hood/
Thoughtful and poignant article on Public Enemy’s “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back”, 30 years old and more relevant than ever:
Top last.fm artists of the past week: Client Liaison (49), Carpenter Brut (47), Cigarettes After Sex (14), Mogwai (11), My Sad Captains (10)
I just noticed: one of the songs (“Cheerleader Effect”) on the recent Carpenter Brut album has two members of Ulver (the massively prolific Norwegian black-metal-turned-synthpop/techno/psych/krautrock/folk/everything-else band) involved (Kristoffer Rygg on vocals and Ole Alexander Halstensgård in some other capacity)
Currently watching Warm Digits, the Newcastle krautrock combo (playing just with guitar, drums and presequenced electronics); they’re putting on an intensely motorik, propulsive performance. I think they’d be great on a bill with Carpenter Brut.
Acts seen with flamingo-shaped decorations on stage over the past few days: Slowdive, Kero Kero Bonito, Jenny Hval
Top 5 last.fm artists of the last week: kuromoji (14), Sin Fang, Sóley & Örvar Smárason (12), Montero (10), Underground Lovers (10), El Guincho (9)
I saw Montero’s second set at CCCB, and it was great. Bjenny seemed to be more into the spirit of things from the outset, and was keeping up with the band more, making an unstoppable psychedelic pop machine. Also, it looks like songs from the album are evolving nicely; the live version of “Quantify”, with its rapid guitar line, sounded more well-formed than what made the album.
Capsule summary: if you get to see Montero live with a full band, go for it.
