Watch: Last Shop Standing

I can only apologise for slacking off so much in the past few months. Blame it on this and this.

I'm breaking the silence to share news about a new documentary DVD that looks pretty great. As anyone who might have followed this blog a bit over the past year of so might have picked up on, record shops hold a very dear place in my heart. They were almost solely responsible for my musical education as a teenager - Stand Out Records (RIP) in Salisbury, my taste is all down to you and your wonderful and precise recommendations that you'd kindly put aside under the counter for me to collect after school. They were a place to bump into friends, to make new friends, have employed me throughout the post-Uni years and have reaffirmed my belief that the independent music sector is still as passionate and hardworking as ever before, especially given the current climate of music purchasing, constantly caught under an intimidating shadow that threatens the worth of music as a physical object; an object that deserves parting with cash for, rather than just clicking and taking for free.

I still find it strange to think that people now expect to be given the gift of music for free, to download and listen to badly compressed, filtered down sounds through crappy speakers and to honestly believe that they are owed it and deserve it without even considering that maybe, just maybe they should donate a bit of money to the creators that have given them such joy. I know there are legal downloading sites that many frequent, but personally, nothing beats a bit of human interaction, flicking through the racks so enthusiastically that your fingers start to catch and bleed, finding that forgotten record or pouring over the liner notes. John Waters says that if you go to prospective lover's and they don't have any books in the house, you shouldn't sleep with them. Without sounding too much like High Fidelity's protagonist, I say if you go to someone's house and there are no signs of records on their shelves, you should maybe just stick to being friends.

'Last Shop Standing' looks like a much-needed nostalgia fest-cum-kick up the arse. The trailer depicts many generations of music fans looking backwards, looking at the present and assessing the future of the beloved record shop, along with some 'Spot The Shop' shots of the UK's leading (and far too few) record stores. It's also a reminder that the diminishing numbers are getting even smaller, as the footage from Rounder Records in Brighton now carries a weight of sadness, given that the shop was forced to close its doors a few months ago, after 46 years of service to the community. Johnny Marr describes them as 'a library for the ears and the mind'; a statement that really does sum up what makes the lowly record shop such a special experience. Long may they continue to educate.



'Last Shop Standing' is out 10th September. And you don't need me to tell you where to pick up a copy from...

Sauna Youth - Dreamlands [Stream]

IT'S FINALLY HERE. Feast yr ears...

Still obsessing over this record. Preorder right now to get an immediate digital download and the vinyl sent to your house one whole week before the release...


http://fauxdiscx.bandcamp.com/album/dreamlands

Proper updates to follow soon.

Chelsea Light Moving: Frank O'Hara Hit / Burroughs

I'm about a week late with this, but wanted to share not one but TWO songs from Thurston Moore's new musical project, Chelsea Light Moving. The line-up of the new band consists of Keith Wood (Hush Arbors), Samara Lubelski (Jackie-O Motherfucker) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand Of The Man) and Thurston, channelling a heart that is, in his own words, "broken and blessed at the moment". After string-led subdued solo outings last summer, the introspective evaluations have morphed into crashing bolts of bright electricity; voices raised, heads in the sky, summoning the past, present and future, calling out, "We are the third eye of rock 'n' roll".

Download new song 'Frank O’Hara Hit' here (and read Thurston's introductory letter about the influences that led to it), and stream 'Burroughs', the first offering from the band, below.

http://chelsealightmoving.blogspot.co.uk/

The Soft Pack - Saratoga

My reigning memory of The Soft Pack was that they were my Valentine's date two years ago. With no romantic prospects on the horizon, and after many weeks of playing the band's self-titled second album on heavy rotation at the record shop we worked in, two friends and myself snapped up tickets and dodged the rose-toting couples along the North Laines to the safety of The Freebutt.

Arriving at the venue, suspicions that Brighton is, indeed, for lovers, were confirmed. For a band that everyone had been talking about for months before, and who were the cause of way too many bag clashes - they were giving them away free with the album, and the logo could probably be seen radiating across the ocean to the beaches of France - the place was almost dead with only a few fellow single folk propping up the bar. But when The Soft Pack took to the stage, any ounce of self-pitying was immediately forgotten. They tore through their set with energy and force, gathering the small crowd at the edges of the stage, delivering the probing lyrics in a more ferocious and challenging manner than when they were embedded among the pop riffs on record. I remember the whole show racing past until it was time for the curfew, and I walked back home never happier to have been date-less on February 14th.

After the show we didn't hear a lot from them again, but this month they have returned with a new song, 'Saratoga', taken from the upcoming album Strapped. I'm lucky enough to have heard the whole record thanks to work, and this track is only a small sample of what's to come - there are definite adventures into the world of Ariel Pink-style songwriting and some funkier stuff that works surprisingly well. But for now, I give you 'Saratoga'. It's good to have them back.



http://thesoftpack.tumblr.com/

SAUNA YOUTH - PSI GIRLS

An evolving band of young future humans making truly irregular punk not quite comparable to anything else; the always excellent Sauna Youth will FINALLY release their debut long-player, DREAMLANDS on 3rd September, as a joint release between Gringo Records and Faux Discx. The band, attracted to the possibilities apparent within a DIY philosophy, have been self-recording and self-releasing their own music since 2010, creating a number of seven inches, splits and cassettes. DREAMLANDS will be the band's first long-player, marking the mutation of their sound and a new line-up.

Listen to the first song to come from within - 'PSI GIRLS'; an eloquent reflection of the lost ability to communicate, blunt of pace and with a brain-burrowing chorus that might just be the poppiest thing they've written to date. It's also a free download if you want to listen away from the computer screen...

SAUNA YOUTH – PSI Girls by Faux Discx


Disclaimer: I would NEVER usually crib the press release, but it was co-written with the band (with an extract from a recent gig event, which I can't seem to find), so I can be a bit lazy, just for tonight. Sorry.

http://lostinidea.blogspot.co.uk/

Thee Ludds - Crumhorn

So you've had a big weekend, feeling out of sorts, maybe even a little queasy? Looking for something to ease the pain? You'd best look away. Thee Ludds' delightfully disjointed garage is 2.5mins of incessant organ and garish guitars, delivered with the demented persistence of a man alarmingly on the edge. The accompanying video contains some stomach-shocking imagery - raw cuts of meat on conveyor belts; pink offcuts sliding down industrial drops; frankfurters journeying over shiny steel; slabs of red flesh being stabbed at by knives. This ain't for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. You have been warned.

Available on 7" from SixSixSixties Records.

Cheatahs - Coared

I'd heard some good people saying some good things about Cheatahs and so had a little listen today to 'Coared'. AND COR INDEED. Perhaps if Evan Dando had stayed on the straight and narrow and didn't write tracks to nod out to, this would have been the driving pop sound of The Lemonheads (who I love dearly, but it's fun to play the parallel universe game). I have a feeling this will be getting some more play tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...

The song is the title track from their new EP, which is being put out by Marshall Teller Records.
You can stream it in full here.

http://cheatahs.tumblr.com/