photos by Chris La Putt

Blood Red Shoes @ MHOW

After Chris left the BV Loft Party all the way back on Friday, October 22nd, he headed over to Music Hall of Williamsburg for the Blue Flowers-presented CMJ showcase for a lineup of mostly UK bands including Chapel Club, Everything Everything, and Blood Red Shoes (who toured North America with Sky Larkin in October). Pictures from that show are in this post.

The occasion (to post these belated pics)? SXSW has already announced an initial lineup of bands playing in Austin from March 16-20, 2011, and Chapel Club is on that list (and I wouldn't be surprised of the other 2 mentioned bands end up coming too). Also on the list: Lia Ices, Braids, Asobi Seksu, Wye Oak, Suuns, Sun Airway, A Place to Bury Strangers and more. Full list under the rest of the MHOW pictures, below...

Continue reading "Chapel Club played CMJ w/ Everything Everything & Blood Red Shoes (pics), playing SXSW 2011 (intial lineup)"

by Bill Pearis

Dubbed the "sound of young Sunderland", the band look like a gang, and their painfully tight drainpipes justify their claim to have the "best trousers in pop". Just as important, they have a clutch of anthems made to learn and sing. Their stomping sound - which is surely scientifically impossible to dislike - dips into Dexys circa Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, mid-period Clash, 60s pop, Orange Juice, northern soul, romance and literature without loitering anywhere. Tender begins with an a cappella routine about reading F Scott Fitzgerald, and turns into a dancefloor pounder. Smash-in-waiting I Wrote This Song With You in Mind sounds like Wearside's answer to Blondie's Heart of Glass.

Such tunes transform the initial hush into a party atmosphere of smiling, sing-alongs and whooping. One couple start waltzing, while another girl risks flouting the indecency laws by patting the gyrating singer on his bottom. A former mobile DJ and hospital radio football commentator, Francis starts the bittersweet stomp of Fragile in the middle of the audience and ends it with people lining up to shake his hand. [The Guardian]

Frankie & the Heartstrings make their first visit to America this week for CMJ, playing Littlefield on Tuesday, October 20 at 9PM, and The Delancey on Wednesday, October 21 at 11:45PM.

The "smash-in-waiting" song the Guardian live review from April mentions above has since been titled "Ungrateful" and is Frankie & the Heartstrings new single, produced by Edwyn Collins. You can watch its video at the bottom of this post. The Dexys comparisons are pretty spot-on. Longtime Anglophiles might recognize keyboardist Pete Gofton from his days drumming for '90s band Keneckie.

The Littlefield show features a two other  up-and-coming UK acts: Chapel Club (dark, widescreen pop somewhere between Scott Walker and Kitchens of Distinction) and The Good Natured (aka ethereal dance-pop artist Sarah McIntosh).

The Delancey show on Thursday is the Wichita/Saddle Creek showcase, with Frankie & the Heartstrings sharing the stage with their mates Sky Larkin, Swedish duo First Aid Kit, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and more.

All Frankie & the Heartstrings 2010 tour dates (CMJ and otherwise), plus some music videos, are below.

Continue reading "Frankie & the Heartstrings are coming (CMJ dates & videos) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Everything Everything - Schoolin' (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Everything Everything - Schoolin' [Games Remix] (MP3)

Manchester's Everything Everything make their NYC debut during CMJ next week, playing Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, October 22 and then a day party on Saturday, October 23 at Arlene's Grocery (with 12pm - Light Pollution
1pm - Lower Dens, 2pm - Kisses, 3pm - Young Empires, 4pm - Everything Everything, 5pm - Shilpa Ray).

How to describe their sound? Their name kind of says it all -- as in "...and the kitchen sink." Their 2009 single "My Kz Ur Bf" really exemplifies that, and is kind of like a collision between ABC and Muse... and I mean that in a good way. Their new single, "Schoolin'" (downloadable above) still kind of sounds like that, but with a hook that might make some think of a PC Richards commercial. There's a whole lot of seemingly disparate elements going on in any one song. Sometimes it works, sometimes less so.

The band's debut album, Man Alive, came out over the summer (in the UK, no American label yet) to somewhat polarizing reviews in the press, that tended to fall on which side of the Atlantic they were from. For example, the NME gave it 8/10, saying:

Thanks to the slackers, there are three dirty words in indie right now: ambition, intellect and effort. Everything Everything don't just fit those terms, they pole-vault over them. It probably goes some way to explaining why, over the past nine months, they've not become the chart-bothering megastars they deserve to be.

On the other end of the scale is Pitchfork, which gave the album a 3.8:

But stuffing everything humanly possible into your songs can be overwhelming, if not identity-sapping. The first 10 or so seconds of this record is pretty much the only span with any negative space-- and even that resembles the obelisk-staring intro of Coldplay's "Square One". From there on, Man Alive is jacked up with bizarre key changes, superfluous time-signature switches, electro noodling, and half-rap lyrics delivered in run-on melodies, and you ultimately think, "hey, what would happen if Dismemberment Plan got a crash course in Pro Tools and a record deal with Fueled By Ramen?" Everything Everything aren't afraid to answer those tough questions...credit Everything Everything for finding their own niche, but it's one that's been unoccupied for good reason.

I caught them at SXSW this year and thought they were pretty good. That they can even pull off these crazy songs live is an achievement in itself.

All dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Everything Everything coming to CMJ -- MP3s & tour dates"