EP Corner: These Things Are Not That Fun

You won't hear a more perfect piece of misdirection this year than The Woods, the first track on These Things Are Not That Fun by West London four-piece Fresh. Singer/guitarist Kathryn Woods opens the EP by apologising for a couple of errors on the (unheard) preceding take:

"I fucked up one chord and I think I messed up a time, so maybe...one more take. Okay. Sorry."

This snippet of studio chat implies a certain perfectionism, and the gently lovely acoustica of the song itself suggests that These Things... could be your new favourite record for lazy Sunday afternoons.

Primavera Sound 2015: The Good & The Bad

I'm back! My first Primavera Sound festival is over, and I've got plenty to say about my stay in Barcelona. On Friday, I'll be sharing five of my favourite new bands from the festival; firstly, though, I thought I'd just list some of the best (and worst) things about my Primavera experience.

What was good?

• The music, obviously. I discovered plenty of new bands - again, come back on Friday for more on that front - but Primavera Sound 2015 also helped me to rediscover several old favourites, namely Brand New (with The Crimea disbanded and Davey MacManus working as a nurse in Africa, it occurs to me that Jesse Lacey is probably the closest thing music currently has to a Davey substitute), Interpol ("This is my favourite!" - me, at the start of practically every song Interpol played on Saturday night), and especially Damien Rice, who - armed with only a guitar, a loop pedal, and his own voice - still managed to make me feel all of the emotions I felt when I saw him with a full band back in 2007.


• The location. The Parc del Fòrum is a slightly unusual venue - with nary a blade of grass in sight, it looks more like a skate park than a festival site - but it's perfect for its purpose. Oh, and since it's right next to the water, you get a great view of the Balearic Sea while you listen to the bands (especially if the band in question is playing on the H&M Pro stage). 


• The stalls. The Rough Trade tent (a staple of the Green Man Festival, which I will also be attending this summer) was a very welcome presence on the festival site last week - being the album addict I am, I loved being able to watch an awesome new band and then purchase their CD immediately afterwards without even leaving the Fòrum. Several Spanish record labels also had their own stalls on-site, which was very cool - I purchased a Helen Love CD from the Elefant Records stand, which is ironic because Helen Love are actually from South Wales.


• The app. I've only had a smartphone for about a year, and so Primavera 2015 was my first app-assisted festival experience. The Primavera Sound app - a sort of digital festival programme that told you all about each act and notified you when one of your favourites was about to start - was free to download and a pleasure to use; it'd be great to see more festivals doing this sort of thing in future (that means you, Green Man organisers!)

April Playlist: Stick it in Your Arm

We've (almost) reached the end of April, and it's been a month of freshness and newness and sunshine all around. Here are 10 of the tracks that have soundtracked the last 30 days or so for me.

My March playlist can be found here.

1. Rainbow Road - Cloud

(from Zen Summer)

We'll start, perversely enough, with the closing track from Cloud's new album (which I reviewed earlier this week). I don't know for sure that this song's title is a Mario Kart reference, but I fervently hope it is.

Brand Old

Hey everybody, Brand New are back! They've just released a new song for the first time since 2009, and while nothing has been confirmed yet, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to assume that Mene will eventually be followed by a new LP.

However, I haven't listened to that new song yet, and I'm not here today to talk about Brand New's brand new album (which may or may not even be in the pipeline right now). I'm here to talk about their old albums, specifically Your Favorite Weapon and Déjà Entendu.

These two records have been on my rack for years, and the thing that continues to amaze me is how much they made of the genres they respectively tackled.

Allow me to explain...

Road Songs

Aside from love and death and possibly a couple of other things, I feel like touring is one of the most written-about subjects in pop music.

It makes sense: once an artist has hit the big time, such go-to subjects as having no money, having no friends, and wanting to get the hell out of this two-bit town become somewhat inappropriate, and the pressures of being on the road become a far richer and more sincere source of inspiration. Sure, you could do what Bruce Springsteen did and just carry on singing about your blue collar, but nine times out of ten, your fans will see through this ruse and your career will crash and burn (just as Springsteen's did).

Sad Songs (Guest Post)

Happy September everybody! Today's blog seems very appropriate for the end of summer - Joshua Price, a.k.a. SCRIBER, has very kindly listed a few of his favourite sad songs. What better way to kick off the cold months?

Hi. My name is Josh and I write and perform in a band called SCRIBER. As he may have previously mentioned, Joel plays drums for us. He's very good. [Aw, shucks! - J]

The music we play is pretty sad and quite bleak. I have a song called Hopeless Lost; some of my songs have made people cry at gigs. After seeing me perform for the first time, my girlfriend asked, "Are you okay?"

As a person, I'm relatively happy and chirpy, but the music I listen to could certainly be shoehorned into the boxes marked 'Depressing' and 'Sad'. So, here are ten of the best sad songs I could think of:

The Spirit Was Gone by Antony and the Johnsons

Antony's voice truly is one of the most upsetting things to listen to. I mean that in a good way, kind of. He really resonates a kind of unique pain that I hope I never feel.