helenknott Archives - Page 3 of 6 -

August 26, 2016August 29, 2016

BREVIEW: YR Welcome 3 @ Wagon & Horses 13-14.08

Words by Helen Knott / Pics by Michelle Martin (Visual Voice Media)

YR Welcome, Die Das Der’s two day festival, has reached its third incarnation. The format works to perfection – over two days and two stages you’re treated to an onslaught of 30-minute sets from some of the best bands around, all while hanging out with the Wagon & Horses’ rather bemused regulars. The festival covers a range of different genres, but the quality level is reliably high.

Take Manchester band Sweet Deals on Surgery for example. It’s not really my thing, but I can’t deny that it’s good. They play an enjoyable set of frantically delivered pop-punk songs with entertaining lyrics. It sounds a little bit like Johnny Foreigner.

Buy my YR Welcome 3 experience begins on the Sunday afternoon with Nasty Little Lonely, a Bristol group that features three members who look like they shouldn’t be in a band together. A guy who looks like Gruff Rhys is on guitar, Toyah Wilcox is on bass and Slash is on drums. The resulting sound is heavier than you might expect – it’s industrial, grinding and pushes the band’s sleazy bass lines to the fore.

The Double Happy are the funniest band of the evening. After the end of the first song their front man confides that he has a hole in his pocket and that his phone fell through that pocket during the song. He then fishes the phone out, much to the audience’s delight. This Wolves trio mixes heavy riffs and shouty vocals, with unusual vocal harmonies providing an effective contrast.

Bristol’s Downard are initially a bit of a shock to the system. Their opening track features heavily effect-ridden vocals accompanied by drums and bass guitar that, coming through a range of octave pedals, doesn’t always sound like bass guitar. It’s a confusingly big sound to be coming from two people in boiler suits – precise, heavy, groovy and in the case of set highlight ‘Yr Box’d’, super catchy.

The Terror Watts have emerged from the ashes of legendary Birmingham group Cedar House Band to create a vibe better suited to a sunny Californian beach than Brummie brutalist concrete. Their song ‘So Alone’ is two minutes of pop perfection that should by rights be all over the radio, inducing enthusiastic dancing at indie discos up and down the country.

Broken Oak Duet only joined the YR Welcome 3 line-up when another band pulled out, but they’re the highlight of my day. Continuing the trend for bands with limited band members, Broken Oak Duet meld math rock with metal. ‘Roger the Optometrist’, from this year’s debut album Terrain, has a catchy riff that heads off in all directions before returning seamlessly to pay off at the end.

Baby faced sibling duo Cassels have songs about the NHS, family dramas and, weirdly for the youngest band at the festival, getting old. They have a certain DIY charm, but don’t quite feel like the finished article yet. And they take awkward stage banter to a new level. Example – Cassels: “This is a song about naughty priests and what they’re allowed to get away with”. Heckler: “Sexy!” Cassels: “….Uh not really…”

But Cassels could get no better lesson in banter than from the very next band on, Idles. Idles’ charismatic lead singer tells his guitarist to “shut up” when he plays his guitar between songs. The guitarist replies patiently, “I was giving you your cue Joe”.

It’s hard to review Idles without mentioning Fat White Family. They have a similar political leaning and punk ethos. Idles though, have better songs. ‘Romantic Gestures’ is a Joy Division enthused romp about pretending to care about romance in a relationship. It, like other set highlight ‘Queens’, comes from Idles’ second EP Meat, released at the end of 2015. Hurry up with the album boys.

Idles are the third brilliant band from Bristol of the day. Maybe we should all move to Bristol… Hang on a minute though, here’s Birmingham’s Dorcha. Featuring singer, composer and all-out music genius Anna Palmer, Dorcha create off-kilter, atmospheric experimental music. I’m gutted when I have to leave well before the end to catch the last train home.

YR Welcome 3 introduced me to some of my new favourite bands, all in a warm, friendly and ego-free atmosphere. But as we were told in Tony Appleby’s recent interview with Die Das Der – the ‘Birmingham-based community of like-minded musicians, artists, bloggers, photographers, film-makers and journalists’ who organise the annual band fest, YR Welcome is a labour of love rather than a profit-making enterprise. And it shows.

To check out YR Welcome 3 updates and line-up information, click here.

For more on Die Das Der, visit www.facebook.com/wearediedasder

For more from the Wagon & Horses, visit www.wagonandhorsesdigbeth.com

August 13, 2016August 13, 2016

HELEN’S PICKS: Moseley Folk Festival @ Moseley Park 04-06.09

Words by Helen Knott / Lead pic by Rob Hadley – Artist pics courtesy of Moseley Folk

On first glance I wasn’t particularly excited by this year’s Moseley Folk Festival line-up. But how wrong I was.

Admittedly the headliners probably aren’t as captivating as last year (Spiritualised and The Monkees vs. The Proclaimers and The Coral), but scratch a little below the surface and you’ll find a real strength in depth in this year’s festival, which includes some of music’s most intriguing new artists alongside a selection of cherished favourites.

Here are a few of my picks from the Moseley Folk Festival‘s 2016 weekend line up:

Mothers

Mothers began as the solo project of Georgia-based visual artist Kristine Leschper, who wrote the majority of the songs for debut album When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired while finishing art school. Having recruited multi-instrumentalist Matthew Anderegg, guitarist Drew Kirby and bassist Patrick Morales, the band recorded their debut after playing together for just a month.

Leschper lists her influences as solo artists Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom, as well as experimental music, math rock, and noise artists, Lighting Bolt, Hella and Don Caballero. It’s a raw, unconventional, moving album and Mothers will be well worth a look when they take to the stage on Friday.

For more on Mothers, visit www.mothersathens.bandcamp.com

Sam Lee & Friends

Sam Lee’s first career was as a ‘wilderness survival expert’. I guess folk isn’t a million miles away from the world of survival – both spheres are focused on traditional ways of life. Lee quickly found success in the music world, with his critically acclaimed debut album, Ground of its Own shortlisted for the 2012 Mercury Music Award, establishing him as one of the UK’s foremost folk stars.

Lee is most well-known as a specialist in the inventive reworking of the music of the Romany Gypsy and Irish traveller communities. He’s lauded as a one-off, an innovator. Though, with one of his songs providing the soundtrack to the trailer of the new Guy Ritchie film King Arthur, he could soon be reaching a much more mainstream audience. He will perform at Moseley Folk Festival with his regular band, Sam Lee & Friends.

For more on Sam Lee, visit www.samleesong.co.uk

Billy Bragg

“Since the Brexit result, our political environment has shattered.” – Billy Bragg

It’s been a rocky time for politics in the past few months and who better to guide us through these troubled waters than Billy Bragg, the country’s most well-known political singer. He plays Moseley Folk Festival ahead of the release of latest album Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad, a collaboration with guitarist Joe Henry that explores a lost American tradition. Expect a rousing Friday night set of folk and protest songs spanning Billy Bragg‘s 30-year career.

For more on Billy Bragg, visit www.shinealight-joehenry.billybragg.co.uk

Songhoy Blues

When Islamic extremists banned music in his hometown in Mali, Garba Touré grabbed his bag and his guitar, headed to the capital and formed Songhoy Blues. The band’s energetic live performances caught the eye of Damon Albarn, with one of their songs being included on a compilation released by his label African Express. Gigs in the UK and a record deal with Transgressive Records quickly followed and their debut album Music in Exile, produced by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner, was released in February 2015.

The band has gone from strength to strength ever since, performing in festivals and shows all over Europe, including their very own sold out date at the Roundhouse earlier this year. The name says it all really – traditional West African music mixed with Jimi Hendrix and Beatles style blues, with a little bit of hip hop and R&B thrown in.

For more on Songhoy Blues, visit www.songhoy-blues.com

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich lost the person he describes as his “number one source of inspiration” – his dad – to cancer in the intervening five years between his debut and new album After the Rain. As our interview with Leftwich from earlier this year shows, the impact of the death of his father is felt throughout the new album – due for release on 19 August, on Dirty Hit Records. Read our full interview with Benjamin Francis Leftwich from May this year.

Still, if ‘Tilikum’, its moving first single, is anything to go by, Leftwich has channeled his grief into a melancholic but optimistic piece of work. He will be hoping that the album garners the same success as debut Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm, described by The Fly as “majestic” and selling over 100,000 copies worldwide.

For more on Benjamin Francis Leftwich, visit www.benjaminfrancisleftwich.com

________

Moseley Folk Festival takes place on 2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th September in Moseley Park. For more on Moseley Folk Festival, including online tickets sakes, visit www.moseleyfolk.co.uk

Or check out Moseley Folk Festival’s social media on Facebook or Twitter

July 27, 2016

BREVIEW: Moon Duo @ Hare & Hounds 22.07.16

Words by Helen Knott / Pics by Michelle Martin (Visual Voice)

What do ABBA, The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire and Moon Duo have in common? Married band members.

It’s understandable that there are so many bands that contain couples really – the sharing of common interests is a solid basis for a relationship. And there’s always going to come that evening when you’ve exhausted all the good stuff on Netflix, one of you turns to the other and says: “Fancy a jam?” I’m sure that’s what happened with ABBA.

Moon Duo began life as a Wooden Shjips side project led by Shjips guitarist and singer Ripley Johnson and his synth-playing wife Sanae Yamada. The early Moon Duo sound is very similar to Wooden Shjips, but the band has progressively moved closer to the pop end of the psych-rock spectrum, replacing the drum machine of their early days with drummer John Jeffrey along the way.

On the record, Jeffrey has made very little impact to the band’s sound – he plays like a drum machine. I was hoping that in this live setting having an actual human drummer would give the band more expression and power, but I’m disappointed. There are no significant changes of tempo, rhythm or dynamics in songs, or even between songs. May as well have kept the drum machine.

This points to the problem with Moon Duo – it’s all rather samey and one note, even when taking into account that psych is inherently repetitive. Songs are given more space live than on the record, which is generally a good thing, and the geometric visuals create the ideal atmosphere for zoning out.

But even with the odd poppier track thrown in from 2015’s Shadow of the Sun, such as early set highlight ‘Free the Skull’, the formula is all too predictable: synth intro, girl/boy vocals, moderately cool guitar solo, more vocals, more synth, end.

And I’m not expecting them to be jumping around the stage but there is an underlying air that they are phoning this performance in. The only audience interaction is when Ridley sounds mildly irked with us that the gig finishes early so that we can have a disco afterwards. He can’t even be bothered to sound properly annoyed.

The audience is energetic and keen to have a good time, but we get very little back in return, apart from a begrudging encore that makes our supposedly beloved disco three minutes late.

It’s not bad. It’s just a bit safe and predictable. Probably a lot like being married.

For more on Moon Duo, visit www.facebook.com/moonduoofficial

For more from the Hare & Hounds, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

____________

For more from This is Tmrw, visit www.thisistmrw.co.uk

For more from Lunar Festival, visit www.lunarfestival.co.uk

July 21, 2016

BPREVIEW: Moon Duo @ Hare & Hounds 22.07.16

Words by Helen Knott

On Friday 22 July, Moon Duo performs at the Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath – as presented by This is Tmrw and Lunar Festival. Doors open at 7pm, with a 10pm curfew.

Tickets are priced at £10 (advance). For direct gig info & online ticket sales click here.

Moon Duo’s gig at the Hare and Hounds is the first of a four-date UK tour in support of their third album Shadow of the Sun, released last year through Sacred Bones Records.

Moon Duo first emerged as a Wooden Shjips side project, led by the band’s guitarist and singer Ripley Johnson. During breaks between Wooden Shjips records and tours Johnson would team up with his synth-playing wife Sanae Yamada to create music not-too-far removed from the mother shjip. The first Moon Duo album Mazes, released in 2011, features long, mysterious fuzzes with extended, noodling guitar solos that could easily have appeared amidst the psych drone of Wooden Shjips’ Back to Land or West.

In recent years, however, Wooden Shjips have been active only sporadically (though a four date UK tour is booked in for the autumn) and Moon Duo has moved out of the Shjips’ shadow. The music has developed alongside this, with last year’s album Shadow of the Sun featuring a more refined and poppy sound.

It’s still fuzzy, repetitive psych rock (indeed, it could be argued that it’s a little too repetitive on occasion) but it’s also much more focused. The addition of drummer John Jeffrey to the full time line-up provides an added dynamism that should be particularly effective live.

For Johnson the point of psychedelic music is “getting you outside of your normal space and transporting you away from it.” It’s up to you to decide if Moon Duo achieves that at the Hare and Hounds tomorrow night. They will be amply supported in their task by Birmingham’s post punkers Victories at Sea – well worth turning up early for.

Check out the video for ‘Animal’, the first single from Shadow of the Sun. It features professional skater Richie Jackson skating on everything but a skateboard:

‘Animal’ – Moon Duo

For more on Moon Duo, visit www.facebook.com/moonduoofficial

For more from the Hare and Hounds, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

____________

For more from This is Tmrw, visit www.thisistmrw.co.uk

For more from Lunar Festival, visit www.lunarfestival.co.uk

June 13, 2016

BPREVIEW: Ben Folds @ Symphony Hall 13.06

Words by Helen Knott

Ben Folds Five brightened up the mid 90’s with their goofy, piano-led pop – initially forming in 1993, initially disbanding in 2000, and releasing seven albums across their entire career. The naughties weren’t the end for Ben Folds Five, with the ebb and flow of reunions bringing the North Carolina trio (the name has more to do with alliteration than an actual number count) onto record store shelves and festival bills until 2013.

But in the midst of all this, in 2000 after the first break up, band leader Ben Folds struck out on his own – carving a pretty successful solo career, releasing six solo albums and collaborating with artists as diverse as Weird Al Yankovic, William Shatner, Regina Spektor Amanda Palmer and author Nick Hornby.

It’s fair to say that Folds has had a varied career; he’s scraped the very depths of celeb culture as a judge on US talent show The Sing Off, and soared to the heights of classical music composition, writing a piano concerto for Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

And its classical music that’s the focus in this Symphony Hall show, as Ben Folds is joined by New York based yMusic chamber ensemble, to perform tracks from his 2015 album So There. As well as his piano concerto the album includes eight new songs written with yMusic.

But be warned, Ben Fold’s Live on Myspace concert hosted everything from an orchestra of classical guitars to a pretend suicide attempt practical joke. So expect lyrics about aging, failed relationships (having been married four times) and above all, that irreverent sense of humour that endeared him to us in the first place.

Ben Folds & yMusic – Meet the Band

For more on Ben Folds, visit www.benfolds.com

For more on the yMusic ensemble, visit www.ymusicensemble.com

For more from Birmingham’s Town & Symphony Halls, visit www.thsh.co.uk