April has arrived, but before you all nip off to buy The Burning Hell's new album (out today), here's a quick look back at the music I was listening to in March:
1. New Friends - Pinegrove
(from Cardinal)
This cracking song is basically a resolution to forget the past, embrace the present, and generally make more of an effort, which is exactly what Pinegrove should have done with their album artwork.
Many years ago - I reckon it must have been sometime in 2006 - I purchased Rock Action Presents Vol. 1, a compilation featuring artists signed to Mogwai's Rock Action label.
That CD introduced me to a lot of great bands, including Kling Klang, Part Chimp and Papa M. For some reason, though, I never bothered to investigate any of them any further - as much as I enjoyed listening to Radium and B1 and I of Mine, I must confess that my fondness for those tracks never motivated me to go out and buy the albums from whence they had been torn.
One of my favourite tracks from Rock Action Presents was Stargazer by a band called The Zephyrs. Stargazer was a gorgeous, blissed-out track about lying on the ground and watching the night sky; it's not exactly what you'd expect from a label called 'Rock Action', but a lot of the time, neither are Mogwai themselves. Listen to Stargazer below:
Nice, isn't it? A bit folksier and more earthy-sounding than Mogwai, but beautiful and ethereal nonetheless. Still, as much as I loved that song, I'm afraid The Zephyrs suffered exactly the same fate as Papa M and Part Chimp and the others: I played their contribution to Rock Action Presents again and again and again, but I never did get around to listening to any of their other stuff...
