The Boy Who Trapped The Sun

As a teenager the boy Colin MacLeod made a name for himself in his hometown on the Isle of Lewis, a windswept outcrop of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, fronting the trash-y agit-punk band Sign Red.

Having worked on the Island as an oil delivery driver and teaching fly fishing, MacLeod found on listening to Bob Dylan’s Masters Of War that music needn’t be loud to be powerful.

Intrigued, Macleod invented the persona, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun and headed to London with a fistful of country/folk songs with the intention of building a solo career.

Now 25 year old Colin MacLeod alias The Boy Who Trapped The Sun is set to unleash himself on an unsuspecting public with the wonderful single Katy, as an introduction to his album Fireplace.

Katy is probably the most upbeat song from the album, an incredibly catchy paean to avoiding commitment. It is pretty much impossible not to like the single which is released on July 5th.

Following a week later on July 12th, the album Fireplace will be released with MacLeod playing all the instruments bar the strings himself.

Hazy opener ‘Golden’ sets the scene, with MacLeod gently drawing the listener into his world. Title track ‘Fireplace’ was written when MacLeod was housebound for four days as a fierce storm battered Lewis, while the loose, bluesy ‘Home’ was written in London, about being displaced in the big city – “This city’s not a home, but it’s somewhere to get lost.”

‘Walking In The Dark’ is an achingly pretty piano-led track, while the waltz-y, wry ‘Dreaming Like A Fool’ is the tale of ex-girlfriend who tried to stab MacLeod. “Lately it feels like we’re drifting apart, It could be because you’re insane.”

Riding on a dream-like descending riff ‘Copper Down’ features exquisite harmonies and a deft, mid-song change of pace. The final track is the haunting, beautifully arranged ‘Antique Cobweb’. There follows the hidden spoken-word outro ‘Poem’, its second verse in Gaelic, wonderfully evocative of the Isle of Lewis and the sea that defines it. ‘Fireplace’ is a beautifully realised debut from an authentic new talent.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun – Katy

MacLeod is a busy boy out on the road, catch at the following venues:

21 Jun 2010      20:00
Bodega with Alan Pownall and Lissie     Nottingham
22 Jun 2010     19:00
Glee Club with Alan Pownall & Lissie     Birmingham
23 Jun 2010     20:00
Bush Hall with Alan Pownall & Lissie     London
29 Jun 2010     18:00
Serpentine Sessions with Patti Smith     London
10 Jul 2010     20:00
T In The Park     Balado,
13 Jul 2010     20:00
The Borderline     London,
18 Jul 2010     18:00
Larmar Tree     nr Blandford, Southwest
19 Jul 2010     21:00
King Tuts Wah Wah Hut     Glasgow,
23 Jul 2010     20:00
The Living Room Tent @ The Secret Garden Party     Near Huntingdon
1 Aug 2010     18:00
Camp Bestival     Lulworth, Southwest
6 Aug 2010     18:00
Belladrum Festival     Nr Inverness,
7 Aug 2010     18:00
Newquay Boardmasters     Newquay, Southwest
28 Aug 2010     20:00
Supporting Pheonix @ The Picturehouse     Edinburgh, Scotland
11 Sep 2010     18:00
Bestival     nr Arreton, South
16 Sep 2010     8:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Sound Control     Manchester
17 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Rescue Rooms     Nottingham
19 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Thekla     Bristol
20 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Pheonix     Exeter
21 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ O2 Shepherd Bush Empire     London
22 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Komedia     Brighton
24 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Academy 2     Oxford
25 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ HMV Institute     Birmingham
27 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Brudenell     Leeds
28 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ The Sage     Gateshead
29 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Bongo Club     Edingburgh
30 Sep 2010     20:00
Supporting Fyfe Dangerfield @ Oran Mor     Glasgow

Misery Guts

Misery Guts EP Launch Night with special guests Cherry Ghost & By The Sea is on Friday 7th May 2010 at The Kazimier, Liverpool.

Misery Guts are from Liverpool & are one of the finest folk acoustic acts in the UK.  They remind me of Brighton’s Miserable Rich in many ways, and have been compared to acoustic legends Simon & Garfunkel.

Over the past couple of years or so they’ve worked solidly picking up some great support slots including local heroes John and Michael Head, Post Punk legends The Fall as well as Noah and the Whale.

After sitting on their latest recordings for the best part of the year so far, Liverpool outfit Misery Guts are finally ready to release the next piece of their puzzle – the follow up to their 2009 singles Trying To Be The Sun and Spiders – the five track EP More Human Than Human.

“Liverpool-based band Misery Guts are fantastic. With gorgeous melodies, psychedelic undertones and beautiful lyrics this folksy, sixties inspired track is the perfect debut and is bound to get them noticed.  Brilliant.” – music-news.com

The amazing collection of songs goes on release on Monday 17/05/10 but advance copies will be available on the launch night at Kazimer on Friday 07/05/10, which sees the band play with the fantastic Cherry Ghost, who will be showcasing tracks from their new album, with additional support from the up & coming Wirral based band By The Sea.

“While many people are stuck for ideas when it comes to doing something different with an acoustic guitar, Misery Guts have pursued their art and created unusually characterful songs.” – The Mag

Having grown in stature over the last couple of years, the ‘More Human Than Human’ release sees Misery Guts build on their already impressive achievements, including a string of high profile supports, an introduction from BBC 6music’s Tom Robinson and some glowing reviews from Liverpool’s music press and beyond.  Having now built a full band around the core of an intricate guitar / vocal duo, ‘More Human Than Human’ is the sound of Misery Guts developing as a band and truly hitting their stride.

“Misery Guts’ debut single ‘Trying To Be The Sun’ is an acoustic treat that harks back to the days of Simon and Garfunkel…it’s a strong debut that should make Liverpool proud.” – The Mag

Misery Guts UK Tour Dates:

03/05/10    Leeds – Oporto
05/05/10   Mojo – Liverpool
07/05/10     EP Launch –   KAZIMIER     with Cherry Ghost & By The Sea
08/05/10     Bumper – liverpool
20/05/10     The Loft @ The Masque, LIVERPOOL SOUNDCITY with Field Music
28/05/10     Trip Festival, Anglesey
29/05/10     Music With  A View festival, Lake District
31/05/10    Crosby Music Festival

For more information visit www.myspace.com/miserygutsmusic

Tunng...And Then We Saw Land

The fourth studio release from Tunng sees the band set sail again on acoustic-waved waters, where the currents run deep with electronic pulses and mermaid melodies are never far from the surface. However, the horizon has changed.

The comforting intimacy and production of previous albums has been augmented with a wider world view. Six strings are amplified and occasionally break for a solo run. The silver mist bass tones of singer Mike Lindsay are lifted by the ethereal vocal breeze of Becky Jacobs. And whereas on previous outings the band’s crafted arrangements would offer a you-and-me arm around the shoulder, on …And Then We Saw Land they pack a “land ahoy!” punch.

Lindsay has said that “We wanted to make a record that would be a great live set so I think we naturally started writing more powerful music” and the first few tracks are testament to this intent. Album opener Hustle is a chart-friendly pop song, reminiscent of M Ward at his jauntiest peak and Don’t Look Down or Back has a melancholic, serpentine bite The Decemberists would be proud of, before finishing on an ocean-chorus of open voices and breaking hearts; perfect for an elbows-aloft, deep-dusk sing-a-long.

However, although the horizon may have changed, this is still the good-ship Tunng we are sailing, with the same core crew that have delighted and enlightened on past voyages. The pitter patter of electronic tonic drops on Roadside build into a blissful, sea-slung carpet of laser guided melodies. While on October, the finger-picked ebb and flow is an undulating base for a melody line that drifts in the direction of Scarborough Fair.

On …And Then We Saw Land Tunng have focused their folk-flavoured beams and electronic washes to great effect. The separation and sharpness of the arrangements gives the album a panoramic scope, no doubt helped by the extra tools employed, including old mics, valves and a reverb plate once owned by Mike Oldfield.

Tunng’s haunting and hazy moonlight shadows are still present but in the foreground are new, dawn-lit breakers, sounding the way to a new horizon.

For more information on Tunng visit the band’s main website or their myspace site.

Watch the promo video for Tunng’s …And Then We Saw Land

Josiah Wolf - Jet Lag

Having been unacquainted with the Ohio group Why? up until the a few weeks ago, it is a fairly neutral starting point with which I perceived Josiah Wolf’s, the drummer for this band, debut album Jet Lag. All the same, ‘drummer’s solo effort’ tends to set alarm bells ringing.

It conjures up the image of the bitter rhythm-keeper stuck at the back of the stage, ignored in the rehearsal rooms, silently harbouring deluded visions of solo fame that grow wilder as the backstage jokes fly at him and the girls still won’t recognise him.

Generally the manifestations of such a traumatic experience are not acoustic ruminations on the subject of the break-up of an eleven year relationship and a move back to a childhood place. As such we learn, albeit in a roundabout manner, that Josiah Wolf must be considered as an artist in his own right.

With this lack of prejudice then, his solo album begins. Most striking are the vocals. Wolf’s voice is multi-faceted and as such, mainly intriguing. At times, such as on the ruminative ‘The One Sign’, he uses a detached delivery akin to Bill Callahan’s deep drawl, at times a more candid voice pierces the fourth wall (“And truly, truly / you move right through me” on ‘In The Seam’), and at other times he moves tentatively into the upper octaves, finding a faltering, susceptible aspect to his delivery.

Lyrics are, as should be the case more than normally on such personal albums, highly important. Reflective, reminiscent, and descriptive of personal and abstract as well as mundane moments, they focus less on explaining or trying to understand a course of events as describing them and expressing the lack of understanding that can be drawn from them. “California, what have you done to me?”, Wolf asks on ‘Master Cleanse (California)’ with candid perplexity.
The arrangements are less striking than you would hope for lyrics of his class, and as such their weight gets lost a little. Working a sort of chamber-pop cum Americana cum singer-songwriter style, in which Wolf plays all instruments himself, it is sad to see the described uniqueness of his experiences lost in what sounds like a band effort. Often with the music, you get the feeling that Wolf’s monism is lost by his attempt to split himself into so many different instrumentalists.

Jet Lag is what gets called an ‘accomplished’ or ‘assured’ solo debut, where accomplished and assured are the signs of a man marking his ground as a solo artist without entirely coming out from behind his drums and the back of the stage.

Jet Lag by Josiah Wolf is released on 29th March by Anticon. It was mixed by younger brother and Why? frontman Yoni Wolf.

Here’s a link to the MySpace page.

The deeply personal track The Only Exception is an acoustic ballad that gives the listener a glimpse into what was going on inside the head of singer Hayley Williams, over the last two years.

Hayley admits that it was a scary thought advertising such personal thoughts to the rest of the world as a 21 year old, but says;

“Now that it’s all said and on paper I’m not as insecure about [these lyrics] because I think these songs (on the album) form a full story that people are going to be able to connect with.”  The Only Exception touches on how her parents’ relationship has influenced the way she deals with, and thinks about, love.

The Only Exception video features Hayley’s father and is directed by long time Paramore collaborator Brandon Chesbro.

Paramore – The Only Exception

After a sell out UK tour which culminated at Wembley Arena on Dec 19th, the band are currently on a tour of Japan and Australia.  Paramore are reported to be coming back to Europe this summer for various festivals.  Exact dates to be announced.

Personal but not indulgent, Barzin shares the pain through the raw honesty of his lyrics covering the well trodden themes of sorrow, regret and anger, evoking all the vulnerability and shifting emotions of a failed relationship.

From the gentle, grieving steel guitar of  ‘Soft Summer Girls’ to the defiant drumbeats of ‘Look What Love Has Turned Us Into,’  Notes To An Absent Lover brings new textures and colours to Barzin’s palette.

The single Look What Love Has Turned Us Into and the album Notes To An Absent Lover are available on Monotreme Records now.

Here is a video clip produced to accompany the track Nobody Told Me.

Barzin – Nobody Told Me

For more information visit the Barzin MySpace page.

we, the plural aka mattew healy

Scottish songwriter and maths student Matthew Healy is the essence of We, The Plural, calling on any musician friends that he can bribe or coerce into working with him.

During the latter part of 2009, Healy put together a collection of his self recorded bedroom demo songs to create his first EP, Cheap Flights Into The Mushroom Cloud.

This lo-fi testament to a hugely talented new artist marries Healy’s elegantly crafted songwriting with a subtle mix of acoustic guitars and electronic stylings.

Healy has recently fought off stiff competition to secure a grant from the Scottish Arts Council in association with promotor YRock. The funds will be used to produce a new EP in the near future, meanwhile We, The Plural are due to make their first appearance on the Scottish gig circuit.

We, The Plural are offering the current EP, Cheap Flights Into The Mushroom Cloud as a free download and comes highly recommended by Buzzin Music.

Great music, excellent lyrics and really love the dialogue at the start of the track Divorce Party!

The album was recorded at London’s Toe Rag Studio’s, where all but one track were recorded using one microphone. No computer mastering was used with all the tracks recorded directly to tape.

As James explains;

“I wanted the process of recording to reflect the album.  The songs are about brokenness, uncertainty and letting go, which are reflected, in the raw, limited and exposed approach.  The temptations to edit and manipulate the songs are taken away when recording onto tape, which is both liberating and slightly frightening.  But as Leonard Cohen sings – ‘forget your perfect offering; there is a crack, a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in’.”

Robin’s performances have drawn audiences from Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, through to The Troubadour, London, into an intimate, haunting and delicate world with his distinctive sound. His fragile, yet powerful voice, and carefully crafted lyrics, draw the listener into a world full of vulnerability, paradox and unknowing, where light and darkness coexist.

Here is a clip of Robin James performing the track Lie Down in a live performance recorded for TV.

Robin James will be appearing at the following venues in December:

December 9th         De Bees  -  Cheshire

December 12th       The Peryls Victorian Christmas Extraordinarium -  Antenna Studios London

December 15th        Cabaret in the Basement – York

For more information visit the Robin James mySpace page.

nancy elizabeth-wrought iron

The Leaf Label artist Nancy Elizabeth has announced that she will play a special show in her hometown of Manchester on December 12th in the splendid atmosphere of  St Margaret’s Church.

Nancy will perform her latest album Wrought Iron from start to finish at the show, accompanied by a band and choir. The band will include Paddy Steer (Homelife), who recently remixed the single Feet of Courage, on drums.

Support for this intimate show will be supplied by Manchester’s Table and Hannah Peel, who has just finished a tour supporting The Unthanks. We are reliably informed that mince pies will be available at this festive occasion.

Nancy Elizabeth – Feet of Courage

Saturday 12 December
St. Margaret’s Church, MANCHESTER (with Table and Hannah Peel)
Rufford Rd, M16 8AE
Doors 7.30pm
Tickets £7 adv
http://www.humblesoul.net/events/

For more information visit the Nancy Elizabeth website.

beans on toast

Underground hero Beans On Toast will release his debut album Standing On A Chair on the 30th November through Xtra Mile Recordings. The double album will feature no less than fifty tracks, incorporating all his work to date.

The gravel voiced Essex boy has been busy writing material for the last couple of years, with only his child sized guitar for company. His Bragg-esque songs include themes on sex (Junkfood Sex), drugs, (MDM Amazing), sex while on drugs (Eggs Benadict) and a wry social, political commentary that is both poignant and funny (Fuck The Smoking Ban and London At War).

Obviously not a creature of habit, Beans On Toast has at times made is songs available on line, stood on a chair and sung them in pubs and clubs and has now decided to package them on an old school double disc album.

Produced by Ben Lovett from Mumford & Sons and featuring an array of guest vocalists, ‘Standing On A Chair’ is the perfect antidote to the glossy, cheesy, manufactured Christmas dross that is currently clogging up the charts. An anti-Christmas, Christmas album best enjoyed post-pub with good friends, cheap booze and in high spirits.

A charismatic figure on the music scene Beans On Toast is a regular feature at Glastonbury Festival – playing the last four years. He has also performed at Secret Garden Party, been a part of Billy Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors (an organisation that provides instruments to anyone using music as part of prisoner rehabilitation) and is Musical Director at Strummerville – the inspirational foundation dedicated to nurturing new music. However, Beans On Toast doesn’t take himself too seriously, and neither should you.

Having recently supported Frank Turner on his UK tour, Beans On Toast will be heading out with his small guitar and wooden chair to play his own shows in 2010, details to be confirmed.

He will be celebrating the release of the album with a free gig and launch party on Sunday 29th November at London’s coolest venue, The Flowerpot.

For more information visit Beans On Toast MySpace page.