Clinic Live In Session

Here’s a couple of videos featuring the marvellous Clinic in session at the spacious studios for 89.3 The Current. They perform two of my favourite songs from their current album, ‘Do It’ – them being Emotions and Shopping Bag. They sound pretty much as you’d expect but that’s the make of a great band, I think. Most of my favourite bands have a very distinctive sound – many of them, such as Stereolab, Clinic, The Fall, New Order, etc. are often accused of only having one tune. But if it’s a fucking great tune, I don’t really care.

Monade – Regarde

Stereolab have been very quiet of late – partially due to the break-up of Laetitia Sadier and Time Gane’s relationship but also due to their various side projects. Tim Gane released a pretty soundtrack for La Vie D’Artiste along with High Llamas’ man Sean O’ Hagan last year and now Laetitia Sadier has put out another Monade album, ‘Monstre Cosmic’. It’s not a million miles away from the sadder/more beautiful aspects of Stereolab but is less groovecentric than they often are. Monade played here a couple of weeks ago but I was away so sadly missed it – Anyone make it? How was it?

Here’s a video for the lead single from the album, ‘Regarde’. Now, bring on the next Stereolab album!

Playlist for Friday 15/02/08

Here’s the playlist for my show last night on www.phantom.ie and Phantom 105.2 in Dublin. It’s on every Friday night at Midnight GMT.

The ‘Under the Radar’ album was:

PLAYLIST: 

CLINIC – Free Not Free
CAT POWER – New York
CUT COPY – Lights & Music
ONE MORE GRAIN – Having A Ball
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS – (I don’t want to got to) Chelsea
THE GOOD GOOD – Clouds
DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? – We are Rockstars

FIGURINES – Hey Girl
THE GIST – Love at First Sight
WEAKLING & KING – Everybody’s Talking
SAINT ETIENNE – Split Screen
COCOPHONE – These Lungs, Our Ocean
LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION – Everyone I know is listening to Crunk
VAMPIRE WEEKEND – M79
AMPLIVE – Faustz (Remix of Radiohead’s ‘Faust Arp’)
KELLEY STOLTZ – Tintinnabulations
MGMT – Time To Pretend
CASS McCOMBS – Pregnant Pause
SAINT ETIENNE – Lose That Girl
STEREOLAB – Ping Pong

NEW AMUSEMENT – Lights Go Down
TUBELORD – Obstacles
ARCTIC MONKEYS – Diamonds Are Forever
LATE OF THE PIER – The Bears Are Coming

PUBLIC ENEMY – Bring The Noise

SAINT ETIENNE – Erica America
VON SUDENFED – Slow Down Ronnie
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Accidents Will Happen
AUTECHRE – Theswere
ENEMIES – A Blind Cocktail

Clinic – Free Not Free

Here’s the new video for Clinic’s new single – ‘Free Not Free’ which you can also download for free here, along with another track ‘Thor’. ‘Free Not Free’ is taken from their forthcoming album, ‘Do It’ which comes out in April and despite the distorted guitar chords at the beginning and the end is mostly a fairly laidback mellow tune, even featuring a flute! Clinic have this great trick, not unlike Stereolab and The Fall, of always sounding distinctly like themselves – almost like they have a uni-song no matter what style of music they put their hands to. I’m not sure if ‘Free Not Free’ was ironically chosen to be the free download single or if it’s a comment on the way music is currently going but either way it’s a rather fantastic tune and bodes well for their next album.

Albums to look forward to in 2008

My Bloody Valentine – Title TBC  Due Sometime 2008

Apparently, this is mostly done. According to Kevin Shields, it’s a continuation of the record they started in the mid-nineties, which he then described as ‘like drum & bass at 33RPM’ with some new tracks as well. Hopefully, it’ll be out in time for the gigs this summer which is all very exciting. There are some bands you’d hate to see recording together again (The Pixies, The Smiths)  but My Bloody Valentine are one band that just might pull it off.

Portishead – Title TBC (Rumoured Title: ‘Alien’) Due April 2008:

This looks like it could well be a stonker. They played some of the new material at their recent ATP appearance and reports all-round were excellent. You can see one of the tracks, Peaches here which is excellent and other tracks I’ve heard also seemed rather wonderful and very different for Portishead. Everything sounds much more upbeat and it seems like 60’s psychedelia may be a key influence on the record. But we’ll have to wait and see…

 Goldfrapp – ‘Seventh Tree’  Due February 2008:

Having heard much of this, I have to say I’m really looking forward to it. I was a big fan of ‘Felt Mountain’ but have been fairly indifferent to anything since. But the new material is stripped-down and more ethereal with a Beatles/Cocteau Twins influence on the material I’ve heard. A&E is the first single to be released from the album and is already getting regular play on Phantom 105.2.

Los Campesinos – ‘Hold On Now Youngster’  Due February 2008:

It feels like a lifetime since I first heard their demo’s and got very excited by Los Campesinos!, which is unfortunate because a lot of their songs seem old to me now and they seem to be over-doing the twee factor the more I learn about them. But I’m still holding out hope that they’ll pull a great album out of the bag, I’ll forgive them their tweeness-overload and it’ll all be okay again. They play The Village on February 11th 2008

Cap Pas Cap  – Title TBC  Due Sometime 2008

They originally claimed that their album would be released in 2007 along with a split 7″ but neither made an appearance. In fact, their only release of the year was a re-press of their 2006 ‘Not Not Is Fine’ EP. Hopefully, it won’t take too much longer and we’ll be rewarded with releases in the near future. Hurry up, would you?

 The Jimmy Cake – ‘Spectre & Crown’  Due February 2008

The Jimmy Cake finally get around to releasing their follow-up to ‘Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead’, which is now six years old. They recently played some of the new tracks on The Indie Hour which sounded more piano-led and almost simpler than The Jimmy Cake you might be used to.

The Breeders: ‘Mountain Battles’  Due April 2008:

Steve Albini is involved and it includes a song in Spanish and a song in German. They play Dublin on April 7th 2008 in The Ambassador.

 Jape – Title TBC  Due: Feb/March 2008

Another one that fells like it’s taken an age to come out but hopefully it will be well worth the wait. Presumably, their current set will make up the bulk of the record which has to be a good sign. Songs like ‘Gimme Some More’, ‘I Was A Man’ and ‘Strike Me Down’ are all absolute stompers so it’s hard to see how this one can fail.

Wild Beasts – Title TBC  Due: Sometime 2008

Wild Beasts are a band that a lot of people are going to despise. Funny high-pitched vocals, bizarre lyrics and a general atmosphere of feyness abounds but I think they’re one of the most exciting new bands around. All three singles to date have been first class so I can’t wait to see what they do with a full-length.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Title TBC  Due: Hopefully 2008

Dexy’s are a long-time favourite of mine and ‘Searching For The Young Soul Rebels’ is one of my favourite albums ever. I saw a re-formed Dexy’s a few years ago and was sorely disappointed and this is a record I would have been worried about except that the new song Kevin Rowland has up on his Myspace page (‘It’s OK Johanna’) is fantastically deadly so perhaps all is not lost yet.

 Foals – Antidotes  Due: March 2008

This is a band that could still go either way for me. I have loved some of their tracks while others have left me cold. I’m glad to see that the tracklisting includes the track that got me excited about them in the first place – ‘The French Open’ and doesn’t include the underwhelming single, ‘Mathlethics’.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend  Due: Jan 2008

They certainly stick out like a sore thumb from everything else that’s going on at the moment with their Afro-Beatles sound. You’re going to hear about them constantly for the next few months and endless reviews mentioning Paul Simon’s Graceland album but if their debut is as good as ‘Mansard Roof’ and new single ‘A Punk’, then it could well be worth the hype.

The Smiths – Boxset  Due: Late 2008

Johnny Marr confirmed towards the end of the year that he and Morrissey are compiling a boxset supposedly due for relese in 2008. Marr hoped it would include unreleased versions of tracks including some of the never-officially released Troy Tate demos and alternate versions and unrelesaed session versions of tracks. It won’t feature any new tracks but it may also include a DVD of unreleased live footage of the band.

Messiah J & The Expert – Title TBC  Due: Summer 2008 

I have to declare an interest here as I’m involved with the band  (See here) but I have heard a lot of the album and I think it sounds very exciting.

Other bands/artists that will hopefully release new records this year include Boards of Canada, Stereolab, Joanna Newsom, Broadcast, Edan and Boom Bip (His ‘Sacchrilige’ EP of last year was the best thing he’s ever done but I’m less keen on Neon Neon, his recent collaboration with Gruff Rhys). There’s always a few surprises and I’m sure this time next year I’ll be praising albums from 2008 by artists I don’t even know exist yet. That’s the fun part.