minor keys a speciality

[chriskerslake]

Best of 2017

GIGS

#1  Sigrid @ Latitude Festival

Destined for pop greatness and a big breakthrough in 2018, the huge mid afternoon crowd at Latitude’s Sunrise Arena will remember the day they saw a future star. Catchy pop songs, big anthems, high energy, and a liberal use of strategically placed “heh”’s.

#2  Flowers Must Die @ The Cube Microplex, Bristol

Incessant motorik grooves - complete with theremin and fiddle - plus a dreamy 60s lightshow from one of the seemingly never ending flow of psych bands from Sweden. An Amon Duul II for the new generation

#3  All We Are @ Latitude Festival

The perfect mid afternoon festival set. The slow building intro to “Burn It All Out” hooked the crowd and had them dancing from the get go.

#4  The Horrors @ Bristol Bierkeller

Big swirly sounds from the silhouetted indie rockers.

#5  Public Service Broadcasting @ Ebbw Vale Institute

Album launch gig in a small and packed working man’s club in a run down Welsh town on General Election Day. Prog meets Daft Punk. New songs instantly likeable, but the highlight was, as always, “Go!”.

#6  My Baby @ Thekla, Bristol

Hypnotic trancey grooves that was impossible not to dance to from one of the hardest working bands in Europe, and possibly the only Dutch / New Zealand band in the universe. This is Blues for a future generation.

#7  This Is The Kit @ Colton Hall, Bristol

Headliners at the Colston Hall’s 150th anniversary “Bristol Take Over” gig, the icing on the cake being the huge orchestra and choir that accompanied the second half of the set. Would have been worth the trip just to hear Rozi Plain play that bass line from “Moonshine Freeze”.

#8  Pumarosa @ Thekla, Bristol

Arty psychedelia with a tendency for big wig outs. Singer Isabel Munoz-Newsome prone to occasional Kate Bush theatrical moments.

#9  Goat Girl @ Crofter’s Rights, Bristol

Beautifully ragged gig from one of the newer bands on the Rough Trade roster. One of those short sets where the band ran out of songs but no one cared. A darker version of Hinds.

#10  Seun Kuti @ The Fleece, Bristol

Possibly the biggest band The Fleece has had on stage - the horn section pretty much disappeared into the backstage corridor. High quality Afrobeat and very random, very entertaining and mostly unfathomable political statements.

Honourable mentions, in no particular order - Ghostpoet, Steve Mason, The Coral, Beans On Toast, Glass Animals, Sylvan Esso, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Novella, Haley Bonar, Songhoy Blues, Marika Hackman, Leo Bud Welch.

ALBUM

#1  Here Lies Man by Here Lies Man

Fuzzy guitars and primitive grooves. The promo material says “what if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat” and I am never going to better that.

#2  Visions Of A Life by Wolf Alice

That difficult second album completely eclipses what was a very impressive debut. Increasingly mature song writing, and an exploration of styles not previously visited. Festival heading spots beckon.

#3  The Witch by Pumarosa

Sometimes sensitive. Sometimes angry. Sometimes shimmering guitars. Sometimes huge cacophonies of noise. Sometimes psychedelic. Inspired debut.

#4  Lotta Sea Lice by Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett

Slacker royalty produce an album that is as tight and urgent as it sounds loose and ragged. A beautiful album that in its way conjures up genuine emotion.

#5  Milano by Danielle Luppi

Spiky post punk featuring guest Karen ‘O’ and Parquet Courts.

#6  Season High by Little Dragon

It may not have achieved the critical acclaim of earlier albums, but the Swedes remain masters of funky 80s synthpop.

#7  Fantasizing About Being Black by Otis Taylor

Another fine release from the non-compromising bluesman. At a time when blues is in real danger of heading the same way as Rock’n’Roll and with preservation more prevalent than innovation, Taylor continues to wring real emotion from every song.

#8  Sunny Hills by All We Are

New Order influenced high tempo dancey grooves.

#9  Prehistoric Rhythm by My Baby

So it may not mark a big departure from their two previous releases, but the song writing is maturing. The grooves take more from Blues than many listeners will realise.

#10  Big Balloon by Dutch Uncles

Pop prog, if that’s a thing. The title track would be a strong contender for “ear worm of the year”.

Honourable mentions, in no particular order - Roll & Tumble by R.L. Boyce, Murder Of The Universe by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Colors by Beck, The OOZ by King Krule, V by The Horrors, Come Play The Trees by Snapped Ankles, Moonshine Freeze by This Is The Kit, What Now by Sylvan Esso.

NOT SEEN BANDS ON ‘TO SEE’ LIST IN 2018

Snapped Ankles, Dutch Uncles, Little Dragon, P.J. Harvey, Stone Gas Band.

SINGLE

Californian Light by Childhood

[chriskerslake]

Best of 2014

GIGS

#1 Goat Mesmerising hypnotic grooves from the masked Swedes. Not so much a gig as a happening. Probably the best live band on the planet. And beyond.

#2 Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings High energy old school soul that stands comparison with the likes of Sam & Dave and Otis Redding.

#3 Jack White Forget big screens and gimmicks. Jack White showed that great rock and roll is all you need to pull off a superb arena gig.

#4 Wolf Alice A band on the verge of a big breakthrough. Ex Folkies discover Nirvana riffs and write songs that you won’t shift out of your head. A big 2015 beckons.

#5 Deers Maybe the harmonies aren’t always spot on. And some of the tuning is a bit dodgy. But the songs are catchy. The band smile. The audience smile. Which is what it is all about.

#6 Family Classy gig by Leicester’s finest. Much less wild than the 70s but a whole lot tighter.

#7 The War On Drugs A Springsteen backbeat behind extended guitar workouts. AOR for the cooler adults. From 6 people at the Bristol Thekla six years ago to huge halls in 2015.

#8 Hall & Oates Super slick and a back catalogue to die for, and fully exploited.

#9 First Aid Kit Beautiful country tinged harmonies and a menacing version of Jack White’s Love Interruption.

#10 Alvvays Slightly geeky Canadians with instantly memorable songs and darker lyrics than you’d realise if you didn’t listen properly.

Honourable mentions - Kasabian, Honeyblood, Chic, ABC with the Southbank Sinfonia, Hozier.

And had the St Vincent gig I had planned to see not been moved to a date I couldn’t make I would imagine Annie Clark would be figuring pretty highly on the list.

ALBUM

So I’ve wimped out and can’t pick an outright favourite, it’s OK to have three equal #1’s - right?

#1 The Silver Globe by Jane Weaver The mix of Weaver’s beautiful vocals and the spacey, dreamy, psychedelic grooves works perfectly. Criminally overlooked in most top picks of 2014.

#1 Commune by Goat More weird trancey voodoo stuff.

#1 Manipulator by Ty Segall Psychedelic garage band rock and roll at its very best. Anyone that hears this and doesn’t feel an urge to pick up a guitar is not listening properly.

#4 Terms Of My Surrender by John Hiatt Gnarly old American produces another near perfect album that typifies American roots music.

#5 Lazaretto by Jack White Rock. And. Roll.

#6 Warpaint by Warpaint Understated grooves that completely engulf you without you realising. A thing of beauty.

#7 Last War by Haley Bonar A set of personal pop songs. A bit like Alvvays, but with more grown up experiences to write about.

#8 Complete Surrender by Slow Club Multi instrumntalist boy / girl folk duo become band, write gorgeous songs, some with odd titles, discover Motown backbeats, produce exceptional album.

#9 Ibibio Sound Machine by Ibibio Sound Machine Funky African highlife grooves crossed with 80s synth pop. Not possible to sit still whilst listening to.

#10 Blank Project by Neneh Cherry Sparse atmospheric trip hop.

Honourable mentions - Turn Blue by The Black Keys, Nikki Nak by tUnE-yArDs, Too Many Roads by Thorbjorn Risgaer & The Black Tornado, Rhythm by Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs, Are We There by Sharon Van Etten, Lullaby And … The Ceaseless Roar by Robert Plant, Alvvays by Alvvays.

EARWORM

Next of Kin by Alvvays

So nearly Love Letters by Metronomy.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Emma Swann

Has that happy knack of capturing the energy of a gig in a still photo. See the galleries at http://www.emmaswann.co.uk/.

MEDIA

DIY magazine

Think of the mag you’d like to create. And it’s even better. A model of how to combine online, print and social media. And some of the best coverage of up and coming bands. Check it out at http://diymag.com/magazine.

[chriskerslake]

Fat Possum

YOU SEE ME LAUGHIN' - The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen Imagine that the Coen brothers had decided to make a film about blues rather than folk. Imagine that rather than Greenwich Village in New York it was set in Holly Springs or Greenville, Mississippi. Imagine that that brothers weaved in a few story lines not totally out of keeping with their previous work, such as murder and gambling. And of course, as is tradition with the Coen's movies, imagine a soundtrack that brings to life the time and place. Imagine all of that and it's a fair bet that the result may have turned out something like You See Me Laughin'. Except You See Me Laughin' is a documentary, not a big screen movie. And the stories of the musicians featured go way beyond what most scriptwriters would ever imagine. Stories not only of murder and gambling but of poverty, of domestic violence and life changing illness and injury, and suspected arson. This is a remarkable document of a generation of blues musicians and the label that signed them - Fat Possum Records - that for a period of time around the turn of the millennium looked like it was going to make an unlikely breakthrough to a far wider audience. And at the forefront were a bunch of musicians about as far away from the image required by today's artist production line as it is possible to be. T Model Ford tells stories of being beaten by his father as a child and how he first picked up the guitar when his wife left him. "I thought, I can play this motherfucker, and I picked it up and sat there crying and playing." Cedell Davis had polio seriously impair the use of his hands. Then he lost the use of his legs after being trampled in a bar fight in St Louis. But Davis overcome these small setbacks by flipping over his guitar and using a butter knife to play the notes. Johnny Farmer only learnt to play the guitar because he had three songs in his head and wanted to find a way of getting them written down. Asie Payton was only free to record when it was raining and he wasn't working on his tractor. Junior Kimbrough's band get to go on tour with Iggy Pop but the rhythm section go missing for a big Chicago gig as music loses out on their priority list to a hunt for local pussy. And of course there is R.L. Burnside, the most commercially successful of this generation of Hill Country Bluesmen, thanks in no small part to Fat Possum's re-mixes of his material and his association with Jon Spencer of Blues Explosion fame. Burnside who lost four family members to murder in eight months after moving to Chicago. Burnside who has shot and killed a man himself and served jail time. Burnside who played gigs from 8pm to 3am for $3 and whiskey. Burnside who says "I hope I can keep on going to keep my family a little longer." As much as the musicians are the stars of this documentary, so are the atmospheric shots of North Mississippi. Church after church and beat up old clubs and houses, all in the sort of towns where unhurried dogs still have the right of way over traffic. And the footage inside the juke joints so captures the mood that you can almost smell the beer, the whiskey and the sweat of a hot Mississippi night. And the dancing. These women make Miley Cyrus and her twerking look about as erotic as Dad's favourites Pan's People (under 40s, you may want to check out Youtube.) There are precisely no parallels with the musicians featured in the film and the identikit stars that fill the charts, the endless TV music channels, and the kind of gossip magazines that think Justin Bieber egging a neighbour's house is remotely newsworthy. This isn't a film about how musicians live when they become rich and famous. This is a film about people for whom music is part of their lives, not whose lives are shaped by fame. And the raw, hypnotic and, to use Iggy Pop's description of Hill Country blues - seductive sounds that are unique to the region. You See Me Laughin' is the music documentary I watch when I need to remind myself just what great music the blues is. It is also as good an illustration as you will find that there is no music that ever comes close to that which comes directly from the heart and soul.

[chriskerslake]

Confession

Gutted to see that The Nolan Sisters have cancelled their 'Farewell' tour. Younger readers may not realise this, but The Nolans were the Girls Aloud of their time, just more 'sensibly' dressed. 'Sensibly' in this case meaning something that you could probably have got away with going to church in. Which is not something you could probably do in most Girls Aloud outfits. Unless it was a very liberal church of course.        

Anyway, to the point. Whilst the Nolans are in the news I feel that this is a great opportunity for confession. To rid myself of a secret that I have harboured for many years in an attempt to retain my inherent coolness. And musical credibility.  

I have seen the Nolans. At least five times. More than I have seen The Rolling Stones. More than I have seen most bands in fact. Not only that, I have travelled great distances to see them. Well, to Blackpool (where I spent the night sleeping, uncomfortably, in an MG Midget because the rain had washed our tent out) and Croydon. 100 miles is certainly more than many would travel to see The Nolans I imagine. I once saw them three times in a week.

This wasn't by choice, although to be fair I wasn't forced to go. Not much anyway.  It's just that I had (and still have) a friend who had a soft spot for one of the Nolans. When I say 'still have' I mean that he is still my friend, not that he still has a soft spot for a Nolan, although he may, I don't have the courage to ask him. It's not something we talk about.      

As for which Nolan, I feel that would be unfair to say. Let's just leave it as 'the one we walked around Blackpool on a rainy day hoping to bump into'. Probably best not to elaborate any further in case she ever filed a complaint back in the late 70s saying she was being stalked by two teenagers, and the case remains open and, even as I write, Blackpool police are scouring blogs looking for the words 'Blackpool', 'Nolans' and '1978' (or thereabouts).  We were probably fairly conspicuous because it was pissing down so much that we were the only ones on the streets. Absolutely no-one else was out. Not a Nolan of any description, let alone a specific one. And despite that we still expected to casually bump into one of them or, to be more precise, a specific one. As you do. 

But if you still want a clue to which one it was, then she was the prettiest one. And still is. Assuming that the current photos are genuinely recent photos and haven't passed through any form of photo editor on the way to her web page.

It is an embarrassing episode from my past. But it could have been worse.  It could have been Bucks Fizz. Or one of the girls from Brotherhood of Man.  

The 'Farewell' tour could have given us both the chance to put this dark episode behind us. To achieve closure. But whilst The Nolans have still to say 'Farewell' there is always the chance the phone may ring one day and I hear the dreaded words "Chris, how do you fancy going to see The Nolans?  We've not seen them for ages."

[chriskerslake]

Honesty

The auralcandy gig at Vinestock on 30/07/12 had one of those touching father - son moments. One of those moments when you know your son can talk openly and honestly to you.

Son #1 - “Dad”

Me - “Yes son”

Son #1 - “You fucked up that Bowie song”