I know that several of these are likely by the same artists and bands. I have these few that I relate with Halloween, with the night and the fear and the unexpected and several of their songs came up at once.
But I won't apologize, because all of them are great.
Ghouls and ghosts and knives and touchy subjects
"THE KILLING TYPE" - AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA
A rock song. Morality, what it means to kill, and a video filled with blood and guts.
"THRILLER" - (MICHAEL JACKSON COVER) - IMOGEN HEAP
One of the most famous pop songs of all time, but softer and slower and creepier than you've ever heard. Just her voice and a piano. Kind of fascinating.
"JENNY WAS A FRIEND OF MINE" - THE KILLERS
A song about a murder, a trial and guilt, one that will shake your head and your heart. "She couldn't scream when I held her close." Heavy, pure rock music.
"MY SECRET FRIEND" - IAMX & IMOGEN HEAP
IAMX as a band are so gothic in style, and so uncensored in the way that they use instruments and write lyrics. Any of their music videos could have fitted with the Halloween I suppose - they're all a little spooky, a little dark, a little twisted - but this one especially, with Chris Corner and Imogen Heap both dressed in drag and creeping around an empty old house.
"MONSTER" - AUTOMATIC
A song that will have you headbanging, a sticky-glue guitar riff and a chorus I'm sure you'll remember everyone singing the few years ago when this was released. "What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?!"
A thank you to my friend @CallMeKTown for submitting
"MISSED ME" - THE DRESDEN DOLLS
A duo of piano and drums, the Dresden Dolls are two percussionists and this gives so much weight and dynamic to their music. From the point of view of a psycho-girlfriend, "Missed Me" is haunting and a little bit hilarious, it grows verse by verse.
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Friday 26 October 2012
Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra - Wednesday 24th October 2012 - Manchester Cathedral
When I was eleven years old, I stumbled across the Dresden Dolls on the Internet. I was maybe too young at the time, but it did me no bad, and Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione's music opened my mind at a time it needed to be opened. A little later, I bought Amanda's solo album "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?", and this year her new release, "Theatre is Evil", with her new band the Grand Theft Orchestra. On Wednesday, I went to see her play at Manchester Cathedral for the very first time.
I arrived at the Cathedral that afternoon way too early, and walked around inside for a while to kill some time. When I got outside I knew I hadn't done something stupid by arriving at three o clock, because people were already there and they were unmistakeably Amanda Palmer fans. They were dressed up, in bright lipstick and dramatic eyeliner and a lot of black lace and tattoos, with more ukeleles than I think I've ever seen in one place.
I don't quite know how it happened but ten or twenty of us ended up assembled in the gardens outside the Urbis museum. People played ukeleles whilst everyone sang together, a girl dressed in steampunk attire recited poetry and every so often random passers-by would stop, kind of confused about whatever it was that went on.
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When doors opened at seven o clock, the crowd assembled around the small stage, in the centre of the crucifix that beautiful Manchester Cathedral is shaped as. And then, unexpectedly, a brass band started to play, and the whole audience swivelled to face the back of the building where they appeared from. They were the Horndog Brass Brand, from Edinburgh, and it was a such a perfect opening to the loud and theatrical nature of Amanda Palmer's show.
After the cathedral's reverend (!) came on to ask for donations and tell everyone to have a good time, Amanda introduced Jherek Bischoff, of the Grand Theft Orchestra, the second support act. Jherek was a bass player accompanied with strings, conducting them not with his hands but his entire body as he moved about the stage, lurching from side to side. He went from bass to ukelele, very song he played was radically different from the one before.
Amanda came on to introduce the next of her opening bands, and in attempt to "loosen up" the quiet and respectful audience, instructed everyone to close their eyes, turn their head towards the ceiling, throw their arms open and on 1, 2, 3, scream.
We all did. All at once. And being surrounded by chaos I think it was one of the most relaxing moments I've experienced.
The band she was introducing were The Simple Pleasure, an electro-punk band, their set made up of sparkly costumes and thrown around flamingo sculptures, a lot of dancing and audience interaction.
And then Amanda Fucking Palmer came on.
She appeared above the stage, singing down from a balcony, the whole place dark except for a spotlight on her. It was very Phantom of the Opera, as she sang completely acapella, surveying the cathedral, an old English folk song.
Amanda descended to the stage as "A Grand Theft Intermission" was played, big and striking and drastic, and she and her drummer threw out bunches of flowers to the audience. She made every song an anthem, the whole audience dancing and singing along with the words as if it were all that they believed, teenage kids and men, and women in lipstick and coloured wigs.
Her band, the Grand Theft Orchestra, were individually so talented and perfectly woven together as a whole, and you could just tell each of them shared everything about Amanda's ethos and attitude to music. Amanda herself was so passionate, slaying piano and at one point caressing the hair of the guy in front of me during "The Killing Type" when she stood up to sing, leaning right into the crowd and holding eye contact.
"Smile" was amazing, every member of the audience singing along, on the tips of their toes, and "The Bed Song" beautiful and heartbreaking, but the show was as playful as it was serious and intense. During "Missed Me", Amanda and her band would freeze like dolls, then spring to action and run across the stage to trade instruments between each verse, going from piano to bass to drums and back.
Amanda Palmer is one of the most hardworking and honest musicians I can think of, and as she went past the venue's curfew it wasn't possible for her to play an encore. She shrugged this off, of course, as no problem and told the crowd she would find somewhere "Probably legal" outdoors to finish the show. This ended up being the gatepost of the cathedral gardens, where most of the crowd gathered around outside to listen to her play "Oasis", an ironically cheerful song about abortion, "Creep", a cover of Radiohead's classic and "Ukelele Anthem" on her ukelele, singing along with every word.
"Stop pretending art is hard."
Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra are back in the UK in March next year, and touring the world between then and now. If you go to her website you can look at tour dates, or buy her new album, which is also avaliable for free download if you're broke.
And I can't really think of a better way to conclude this, than saying how I have never witnessed more of a sense of mutual love between absolute strangers, than over something such as an Amanda Palmer show. Because more than the perfection or the chaos, all that art boils down to is the ways that it brings people together.
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Athlete are an indie-rock band from London, made up of Joel Pott, Carey Willetts, Tim Wanstall and Stephen Roberts. They had a lot of success in the mid 2000s at the same time as bands like Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chiefs, when music like this was becoming "cool" again. You've probably heard of them for singles "Vehicles and Animals and "Superhuman Touch" - a song I first heard in 2009, then lost for a while. Literally, I lost it, I could hum the chorus but didn't know the name or who it was by. A few months ago, I rediscovered it and I'm so happy I did.
I found out they were playing here about a month ago and was surprised to say the least. Nantwich is where I live, a small, kind of dreary town in the flattest county in England. It's full of Tudor buildings and independent shops, places full of trinket type gifts and old-style sweet shops, a tourist town, and apart from a few local folk bands, I'm sure you can imagine it definitely isn't the sort of place live music is abundantly alive.
This week, the Words and Music Festival has challenged this lingering sense of absolutely nothing that the town holds, though the only show I managed to get down to was Athlete at The Crown Hotel Ballroom on Sunday night, the last night of the festival. And as I normally go to Manchester, Liverpool or London to get to shows it was really nice to just walk about fifteen minutes from my house.
The opening act was Fran Smith, a piano playing singer-songwriter who's about to support folk musician Thea Gilmore on tour. She was young and nervous and smiley, but completely relaxed as she played and sang lovely compositions in a vague Yorkshire accent, dawdling between what sounded sometimes like Gaelic folk music ("We Will Have No More Marriages" in particular) and what was closer to pop music (a song I think was called "1013 Days"). Fran finished her set with "Orion", a beautiful song about two lovers, one who sleeps through the day and at night is the stars, the other goddess of the morning.
During the break, organiser Nigel Stonier came out to talk to the crowd about turning phones off. A raffle was drawn. It felt very close to home but also I knew I was at a concert, a strange juxtaposition.
And then they came on stage.
It was only Joel and Carey tonight, a stripped back acoustic set to fit the venue, a small ballroom with a bar at the back where people were drinking and talking a little too loudly during the support act.
Their music, normally entwined with a lot of keyboard effects, was just as lovely in a stripped back setting. Joel Pott switched between acoustic and electric guitars, whilst Carey Willetts did a little of everything; he played guitar, he played keyboards, sang backing vocals and used a laptop during a few songs for drum noises.
It was, I suppose, a pretty "tough crowd" - well-dressed people in their forties dawdling around getting drinks, kind of acting like they were at a bar instead of a concert and I hadn't wanted to go with the very teenage attitude of expecting people in the town I live in to be that way, but that was just how it was. Until Athlete came on stage, during which I was really pleasantly surprised. It was during "We Got the Style" that at one point Joel stopped singing and the whole crowd echoed the chorus:
"Woah, it's getting hot in here, must be something in the atmousphere."
And it made me laugh and smile so so much.
The whole show was so relaxed and the two of them clearly so comfortable on stage after all these years of doing it. There were a couple who requested a song for their wedding anniversary, stories about how recently Carey "nearly died" after epiglottitis, jokes about Westlife and much more audience interaction that I'd have expected from these weird conservative avoid-your-eyes-in-the-street people I have grown up around.
Highlights included "El Salvador", which with just a keyboard and guitar sounded so different to the album version, "Half Light", and gorgeous "Superhuman Touch", completely acoustic and so pure-sounding.
They finished with "Wires", a song about the first night of a child's life spent in hospital, "Running down corridors through, automatic doors" and it's incredible. The whole room were singing and seeing as I was there on my own and sat next to strangers it was easy to be unashamed about the fact that tears were streaming down my face, until the woman next to me turned and looked at me a little awkwardly once the song was over, all was out. But she didn't frown or look disapproving, there was no "Kids, these days." She just sort of smiled and nodded like she understood. And for once I didn't have to take a train a long way to find music and people that could restore my faith in humanity.
After ten years, a lot of hits and an Ivor Novello award, Athlete are finally winding down now, so catch them while you can - they're playing a few shows around London at the start of next month I think, then supporting Alanis Morissette on her tour in November.
Friday 12 October 2012
An Interview with Samantha Hale
Map the Music happened when, inspired by the comfort she found in going to concerts after her father’s death, Samantha Hale started taking a video camera around with her to see the likes of Imogen Heap, Tori Amos, Carey Brothers and Zoë Keating. The result is a really beautiful documentary investigating the incredible ways that music affects people’s lives.
I asked Sam some questions about the film and its upcoming sequel.
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You didn’t go to film school, but was film-making something you’d thought about doing before having the idea for Map the Music?
Actually, no. Ever since I was little I wanted to be an actress. I thought that was what I was meant to do. I was still pursuing it when my dad passed away, and the only reason I stopped was because it was such a difficult time for me. I had already planned to go to several of Imogen Heap’s shows before he passed, and I almost didn’t go. My friends convinced me to go and I wound up going to about 10 or so shows that tour. When Immi announced she was doing another tour later that year I decided to go again. At first I thought I would bring a little camera just to have a video blog, but then I realized there are so many people out there who use music as therapy (like I was doing,) so I thought why not document other people’s experiences as well. And that’s how it started. I kind of made it up as I went along and learned how to use the camera equipment as I went along as well…
How is Map the Music 2 going to be different from the first film?
Well I definitely knew that I wanted to make it different than the first one. I am a bit more ambitious with this one, in the sense that I want to expand on everything really. I am interviewing a larger variety of musicians – different genres and age groups. I am interviewing people on streets in various countries – not just the USA
Map the Music was inspired by your dad’s death and the comfort you were able to find in music, but Map the Music 2 will be about how music ties in so closely with love. What happened in your life to make you want to focus on that?
I can laugh about it now, but it was difficult to admit at first. I got the idea for this film after having my heart broken by a man I met while filming the first MTM. Being that he is a musician, I started having a really hard time listening to some of my favorite music because some of it reminded me of him. I realized I was hearing music more intensely – both when I was with him and feeling bliss, and when I wasn’t with him and was hurt. I just blindly began filming a few months later not really knowing what I was trying to say with the film. It took me a year a filming, but I finally figured it out, and am very proud of where this film is going…
Interviewing so many people with this “addiction” to going to concerts did you notice any common answers? Is there a universal thing that keeps people coming back?
Hmmm. It’s hard to put it into words. I guess that goes hand in hand with why the power of music is so hard to explain. The most common thing I see is when I ask people about concerts, love, and music…is that their face lights up and they smile.
Do you think it’s healthy for us all to hold on to music this much for support, is it safe to depend on and have so much faith in? And how is that different with being invested in a song and invested in the person who writes it?
That’s a great question and something I absolutely address in the film. It’s a big part of the ending. It’s one of the most important themes actually. So maybe let’s talk more about this after the film comes out ;)
What’s the most ridiculous thing you have done to get to a concert? (e.g spending lots of money, travelling far, giving up something?)
Flying all over the world to Tori Amos play with a full orchestra. Totally worth the experience though. It’s a great way to see new cities with a group of friends, then everyone comes together to go see the show and it’s a beautiful experience.
Finally, best gig you’ve ever been to? (It’s totally okay to pick like, five)
Oh man. You are going to make me pick? I have been going to shows since I was 12! My first big concert was a radio station Christmas show and there were about 12 bands playing….No Doubt, Garbage, Bush… It was 1995 and I wanted to go so badly because Alanis Morissette was playing. I wound up sneaking in to the pit and got to see her right up close. I was so excited and thought I was so cool for sneaking up there!
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Watching Map the Music was one of the most reassuring experiences I have ever been through… amid how interesting and informative it is, it’s also just like being told “Oh hey, so it turns out you’re not a complete weirdo for feeling like this" - admittedly, the first time I saw at it was very late at night, feeling like I was the last person in the world awake, and I cried and cried. Music and going to concerts are a huge part of people’s lives, it unites people, and I’m so glad someone’s bringing this to attention.
You can learn more about the movies and buy the Map the Music DVD right here, and the next film is due for release next year.
Monday 8 October 2012
Autumn 2012 Playlist
I did one of these at Christmas last year, but I feel like Christmas definitely isn't the only time for music that's season-appropriate (it's still not okay for my dad to put "A Spaceman Came Travelling" on in September). Autumn seems like one of the saddest times of year to me, especially October time, with the sad return to real life after summer, approaching of the cold and still far away from Christmas. So, what better thing to do than wrap up by a bonfire or just go out on a long walk on your own, and listen to some really good sad music?
"The Suburbs" - Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire's album "The Suburbs" is all about the chains of middle-class, caged birds and teenage rebellion, this title track is also nostalgic and echoes love. A good back-to-school one. They're one of the best rock bands to emerge in the last couple of years.
"Panye's Bay" - Beirut
"Headstrong, today, I've been headstrong." Beirut are a great band. They're from Santa Fe and their music has always had an aged European feel to it, but their most recent album touches on home.
"Indian Summer" - Jonsi and Alex
Their music is like nothing I've heard before - I like listening to "Riceboy Sleeps" when reading because it's so subtle it doesn't interfere with your train of thought. At the same time, you can just shut your eyes and listen to these odd and beautiful falling sounds and have it completely hold your attention.
"Scar" - Lucy Rose
A folk singer, Lucy Rose's music is mostly acoustic but not afraid to rock out a bit and her new album "Like I Used To" is brilliant. "Remember how lovely we were?" - "Scar" is soft and peaceful, a song about heartbreak. She supported Noah and the Whale earlier this year and is currently touring with Pete Roe I believe, so definitely go if you can.
"The Fire" - Imogen Heap
The crackling burning noise behind this gorgeous piano piece was recorded as Imogen threw a piece of wood that had been in the family home since childhood onto a bonfire.
"Make It Gold" - Ohbijou
A Canadian band I was introduced to recently, this song just sounds like dreaming. It swirls and lifts around and between your ears, they remind me of Florence or Ellie Goulding a little. Beautiful strings and beautiful lyrics.
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