The Bronze Medal - The Bronze Medal

For a while the only tracks by The Bronze Medal available have been a heartbreaking serenade on the importance of calcium for strong teeth called ‘Milk’ and a couple of acoustic videos on youtube (including a beautifully harmonised Frightened Rabbit cover). No more, however, must I listen to the same two songs on repeat to get my fix, as they’ve released an EP.


Only four tracks long, it’s perhaps a little short for my taste, but then that’s only because I could listen to the gorgeous, yearning sound they create for hours. With distinctively powerful and emotive vocals that somehow also manage to sound fragile, and a constant undertone of longing and sadness The Bronze Medal are probably best compared to bands like Dry The River and We Were Promised Jetpacks. But that’s not to say they’re going over old ground musically, the final track of their self-titled EP ‘Womb’ epitomises their Mogwai-like talent for morose guitar music, but with the addition of those soft, mournful vocals, the crescendo-ing waves of sound become yet more painfully beautiful.

Album Review // My Tiger My Timing ~ Celeste

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Named after a song by composer, singer, musician and disco producer Arthur Russell, My Tiger My Timing have been a few years in making their first album. The band formed in 2008, although this album is (self-) released on their label Snakes and Ladders Records, which has been going since 2005. Given this, you might be expecting something lo-fi or DIY. Not the case at all. MTMT make gleaming electro-pop, gloriously free of the standard dubstep breakdown that pollutes a lot of poppier indie dance music at the moment.

There’s a driving, rhythmic beat as the basis of almost every song, adding movement and an abundant feeling of joy. Third single, ‘The Gold Rush’, is a melodious blend of that beat and Anna Vincent’s sassy vocal delivery, bringing a darker element. There’s a catchy contrast between her swift and memorable delivery of “so near so far so happy you can join us” and the rising “ooh ohh ohh”s, underlaid with a swelling tropical guitar riff. The track becomes addictive and blissfully enjoyable; there’s something very unique and fresh about this album, clearly a band worth keeping an eye on.

Bands like Summer Camp and Class Actress are popularising an 80s nostalgia. MTMT also seem to draw inspiration from this, using it to make their sound distinctive and recognisable yet individual.

Demonstrating an understanding of the need not to make an album solely of cheerful sing-along tracks, ‘Celeste’ has its softer moments. ‘Memories Of Earth’ feels gentle, particularly after the thumping beat of ‘Honesty’, ending with echoing shouts that fade into laughter and that lovely guitar.
‘Celeste’ is appropriately named, it’s a heavenly mixture of ambient electronica, with hints of math-rock guitar and a sheer abundance and quality of vocal hooks you’d only expect from very good chart songs. Like the deceptively sweet looking girl clutching a shotgun on the front cover, ‘Celeste’ reels you in with sugary melodies and then ensures you won’t be going anywhere with an almost aggressively confident, darker layer.

Xiu Xiu Larsen, The Croft Bristol - 25th June '12

If you're reading this between 8-9pm GMT on Thursday 28th June then go HERE to listen to my radio show, where I'll be talking more about the gig and playing music from EMA, Xiu Xiu, Gunning For Tamar, Alt-J and more (as well as the new WHY? track).


The Croft is filled with the sounds of heavy metal guitars and screaming. This isn’t because Xiu Xiu Larsen have had a drastic change of sound, there’s also some kind of heavy metal evening going on in the next room tonight. Thanks to The Croft’s design, this is fairly easy to ignore, although it can be a little surprising later when XXL are keeping the audience enraptured, things fall silent, and there’s some thrashing going on in the background.

In the ‘main’ room we find Anta setting up in front of the stage – the rather large gong next to the drum kit attracting some attention. Without microphones as they are, there’s no in-between song chit chat (or singing), they don’t even pause at any point during the set. It’s a constant influx of noise, which can be a little overwhelming (and leaves you feeling a little dazed afterwards). But there are some catchy melodies and things never become self-indulgent. You might be fooled into thinking that there was no set structure to their set, but the clever fluctuating changes in rhythm and texture make it clear that everything is well calculated. Their set up in front of the stage allows the space to feel a little fuller but they soon pack away their (very impressive) array of amps, clearing the way for XXL. The latter are surrounded by a barrier of pedals, guitars, drum kit and unusual instruments - there’s even a theremin (although that doesn’t get much use) as well as several keyboards and a variety of small percussion.

XXL’s set begins gradually, building a blend of sound that seems almost without melody, until the drums lead with a beat and a much more defined shape emerges.  The audience is surprisingly small, at its peak there are perhaps no more than 30 people, which has the strange effect of making this feel like something secret. They all seem utterly absorbed in the performance, and there’s a small ripple of excitement when the opening notes of ‘Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw’ echo out. Invariably, Jamie Stewart (the Xiu Xiu part of Xiu Xiu Larsen) is drawing out a heart wrenching guitar melody, keenly emotive and almost unbearable in its beauty. It rises above the rest of the sound, pulling the reverberating chords and melodies around it into a web of noise that demands your attention until it’s the only thing you can think of.

Several of the tracks descend into the cacophony of fuzz and noise that Stewart’s band Xiu Xiu sometimes make use of. We’ve described before here at LBW how effective and affecting that can be, and whilst there is arguably a less calculated effect here, it somehow wraps itself inside your ears until the stabs of noise feel comfortable and necessary. It’s perhaps important to assert that this is certainly not a Xiu Xiu concert, but it also seems a touch illogical to consider tonight’s performance out of the context of Xiu Xiu.

Both bands are capable of evoking very strong feelings in the audience, often unexpectedly, and both feature that wonderful guitar - but there’s something rawer and less predictable, less safe, in XXL’s playing tonight. At times this can make it a harder listen and less rewarding. If you’re not in the right frame of mind then the bursts of noise and fuzz could feel alienating, but if you give them your full attention then it’s hypnotic, aggressively emotive and a powerful thing to watch.

An Interview With Johnny Foreigner - “I felt like I’d kinda led people into talking about stuff I had no right hearing”

We caught up with Johnny Foreigner (who are playing The Garage, London this  Saturday as the last date of an extensive UK tour). They told us all about the making of Vs Everything, listening to people's conversations, and how being in Johnny Foreigner is like owning a water park.

- What are you proudest of as a band?

That there's a bunch of cites all over the world that we could go hang out in tomorrow; with friends and smokes and good music and adventures, and all because we write pop songs. Everything else, shows and tours and press and status, it's all super but still kinda fleeting; and it's when all that calms down for a few months and you take stock and think, shit, there's no way this would have happened  had we got real jobs.

- Your new album ‘Vs Everything’ is split into three sections did that happen naturally or was it planned from the start?

Yeh, totally from the start. We didn't know if we'd have 3 or 4 till kinda later on, I have a 4 part version playlist that includes all the songs that got used on the eps and single around it, but we scaled that back so the eps still felt special. We debated for ages, theoretically, about the tracklist but when it came to actually deciding we all came round pretty quickly to how it ended up

- Your track-by-track on DrownedInSound was really interesting, particularly the details of the people you’ve written about. How important is it to you to base your lyrics on personal experience?

Um, I think it's getting less and less. It used to be everything. Like, a lot of the stuff Vs Everything is 3^rd person. I mean, its all true (more or less) but it's more other folks stories thru my filter. A lot of people said they related to songs on Waited Up; that – i've been there man – empathy. Grace was just as self obsessed, but I think I lost that empathy; instead of pubs and nightclubs and last buses, Grace is full of soundchecks and hotels and air travel. I always had this ideology of pure singing from the heart, I kinda challenged myself to write about stuff I cared about without necessarily lacing it with my opinion or putting it into personal context.

- Have you ever not used any lyrics because they were too personal?

No, I just bury them in feedback..  I think I've crossed the line in a few songs and it annoys me cos I'm onstage repeating it each night, but that's my own stupid hangup to deal with, it's not like I write explicitly enough that other people are going to cringe. And i've had a couple of really awkward stare at the floor moments with girls being like, wait that's me isn't it.. but I never have any kind of self-censoryness, I think the edge of personal/too personal suits us well.

- How did creating your new album with Alcopop differ to working with your previous label?

So so so much easier. I mean, I guess we're older now and we've kinda proven we know what we're doing, but Jack gave us money to pay Dom and left us alone for a few months. Before, it was like, argue negotiate compromise, a month in New York, and a whole dark frustrating world after trying to co-mix via email. I wouldn't change what happened cos we learnt so much, both about  the industry and production. But Jack's completely on our wavelength, it's as if he runs Alcopop in order to accumulate cool stories to tell his grandkids. To disappear and come back 6 months later with a double album is the kind of thing he expects from us

- The way you’ve used the audio clips about cursed songs is extremely effective, how did that idea come about? 

The original plan was to build a bank of conversation samples ourselves, just recording people around us. it just seemed kinda natural to ask out instead of doing it ourselves, both for variety and cos we're hella lazy. Also, recording people's conversations is weird if they know and weirder if they don't. Musique concrete is this hideously avant garde style of meshed field recordings and found sounds, we started off thinking we'd slip samples into loads of songs but there wasn't really the space. And we knew we'd need interval tracks, so I crafted them using whatever sound files I could rob from dropbox in true sonic guerilla style.

- What was it like to listen to them, and the personal feelings and emotions they describe?

Weird. Totally voyeuristic and slightly uncomfortable. I felt like i'd kinda led people into talking about stuff I had no right hearing. Idk, tumblr generation innit; intimacies aren't necessarily a personal thing

- How did you decide which audio clips to include? 

Harriet totally stood out, hers was the perfect mixture of weary resignation and affected teen nonchalance, so the first one was built around her. I've never met her so I hope that isn't offensive. It's super hard to do something like this and not be kinda studied about it; and that awareness in inflection and tones – talking publicly about something so personal, is kinda what made them uncomfortable to listen to bare. For the second one I cut everyone up into sentences and phrases and got stoned and tried to piece them together semi-coherently. And the last one is literally everyone..

- How important is involving your fans in your music? 

Honestly, it's not that much of a big deal to us, all these stupid adventures cos naturally. it's just hella fun. It's like, if you own a water park, d'you try and build a bigger pool to fit more people in, or buy a wave machine and slides and fun stuff for the people already in? We're totally into doing the latter in this awful metaphor, but, if it was a shit water park and noone ever came, it'd still be our very own god damn water park.  Being able to involve people to the level we do is a fun perk of having those people care enough in the first place, and I wouldn't really trust bands that didn't want to be close to the people fucking paying their way. We formed a band cos we wanted a badass hxc gang that listened to pavement and capn jazz and smokes weed and we could hang out with in any city ever, not cos we think we're special, or  worse, separable. 

- I think it’s fair to say the NME weren’t particularly mature or fair about their coverage of Vs Everything, what’re your thoughts about what’s happened between them and the band? 

Meh. Feel like we were kinda set up, in that, a week before that review, they were like, sure we'll stream your record on our site and everyone's into it. It's just that Ricky guy really hates us cos my record store day blog spread around so much and I was really rude about him in it.  Whilst I wish it had got  an 8 or 9 instead, we probably got more publicity this way, so, from a business side, it was fine, and we both got our little ego trips out of it.  I stand by every word I said about Ricky, the fact that he's an editor of the NME says more about the NME nowadays than his review said about us. But really, a dying old magazine sponsored by a hair product, no way are we going to lose sleep over that..

- Where did your anti-leaking strategy for Vs Everything come from?

 

From seeing other bands do the first part and then still suffer the leak; it's easy to make a spazzed copy of the record, but it has to go viral (at least, in our tiny community) for it to have any effect. The people who're most into the band are the ones most likely to leak the record; kids with review blogs who love what you do so much they're compelled to share it. And bands are always, hey dont do this, don't leak it, don't tell anyone yet. It didn't seem that much of a jump to think, if you involve them in this, explain why it's important and how they can help, instead of begging them to go against instinct, then it greatly increases the chances of getting away with it.

- How much of a difference do you feel it made? 

Idk, it's impossible to quantitatively state innit. I'm not naïve enough to think there aren't people who had copies earlier than they should, but the endgame was to concentrate hype as opposed to win the internet. I mean, it didn't leak, (or if it did, it was so far from our channels as to make no difference)and now we're making money and have a summer of festivals to look forward to. I'd be very surprised if the links haven't died out now, and it was as easy to get as everyone elses records, but more than anything it reassured us that all the people that say they care about our band, really do care. 

- If you could change one thing about being in a band, what would it be?

 If you mean our band, we'd have learnt to drive. Same answer, every time, highlighted bold underlined. I mean, now it's not really practical, but we've spent so much, turned stuff down, missed out on parties, cos none of us has a fucking clue how cars work. If you mean, every band tho, we should all have to wear nametags. Audiences too.

- What’s in the future for Johnny Foreigner?

OMG ITS SO SECRET I CAN'T SAY BUT IT WILL BE PRETTY SPECIAL. Level up...

*One final thing, tonight, from 8-9pm, you can listen in to Spark Radio to hear me (Mel) talk about the interview, and Johnny Foreigner - as well as music from Los Campesinos!, Tall Ships, Summer Camp and Serengeti. If you want to discuss anything you've just read as well, make sure you listen in. Song requests are welcome too.*

Los Campesinos! + Tall Ships; Thekla, Bristol 21/03

Wednesday night at Bristol’s Thekla gets underway early and Tall Ships perform in a way that would be commendable for a headlining band. It’s rare to see a support band captivate the audience so fully, but completely understandable. The gently harmonised vocals are a contrast to the fast, sharp guitars; a powerful combination, strengthened by the vast crescendos overlaid with solid, lyrical melodies. ‘Vessels’ is a set highlight and a fitting track for the venue, not only in title (for those unaware, Thekla is a boat). The misleadingly slow and delicate opening melts into a thrumming drumbeat, filling the air and we all join in the chanting, “the vessel, that carried you and me, now sits at the bottom, the bottom of the sea…”


The boat was busy enough for Tall Ships, but waiting for Los Campesinos! it somehow manages to get even cosier; the balcony area looks fit to burst and down on the floor it’s already uncomfortably warm. That’s not a surprise. It’s a sold-out homecoming gig, as LC! are fond of reminding us they’re local (and definitely not Welsh).
Rocking back and forth to the beat, the entire band seems to be perfectly content with the newer songs. Coming after a few shaky first gigs with the new material, this is a positive sign. After the aching beauty of ‘To Tundra’, Gareth solemnly intones that quality is guaranteed from here on in, as “all the songs left have been featured on BBC3 programmes”. This is said with a wry smile, he’s fully aware that most people here are going to know the words to whatever they choose to play. With that, they launch into the infamous “beer song”. The days of bratty shouting and atonal glockenspiel are certainly long behind them, but the anticipation of the gradually building guitar on ‘You! Me! Dancing!’, comes only partly from nostalgia. It’s a testament to the band’s understanding of what they mean to their audience that they don’t leave this one out......

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Xiu Xiu Bristol Fleece - 12th March '12

The first support band, Crash and the Bandicoots, shuffle onto a stage filled with fairy lights and paper lanterns. They're enjoyable and confident, using audio clips to introduce their songs (in much the same way as Fight Like Apes). The clapping, fairy lights and "ooh ahh"-ing looks on paper a bit twee, but that's not the case at all and they're a fun, interesting band to see. Up next are Trumpets Of Death; unlike their predecessors they don't stop between songs, each echoing note melding into the next. It's an impressive show, including some incredible saxophone playing, the only flaw being that they lack the immediacy of the other bands. Of course, the real trouble with supporting a band like tonight's headliners is that they are who we're all really here to see.

There's no talking between tracks tonight (as is usual with Xiu Xiu), but the band all seem perfectly content with the silence. Stewart speaks only twice - thanking the support bands at the start, and then thanking us in an equally hushed tone. His speaking voice is at odds with the raw power of his singing; he dodges between howls on 'This Too Shall Pass Away' (the only track they play from 'Dear God I Hate Myself'), and the beautiful, heart-breaking melody of 'Fabulous Muscles'. Silence falls almost completely for this track. The drummer, Marc Riordan, makes his way to the front of the stage to stand silently next to Stewart, hands clasped with a solemn expression, looking for all the world like someone in mourning. The crowd is unexpectedly small, especially for a band that's travelled so far to get here, but those that have come seem to be dedicated fans. There's a smatter of impolite talking over the start of a few tracks but that soon settles down as the songs develop. The set-list is clever and well thought out, the sublime refrain of 'Suha', "I hate my husband, I hate my children...when will I be going home?" is right at home next to the melodic "la la la"-ing on 'Joey's Song', one of the tracks from the new album 'Always'.

There's definitely something religious about the dedication of Xiu Xiu's listeners, and in the fairly small number of people here, there doesn't seem to be even close to a "type" of fan. If you just can't understand what makes people fall in love with this band, then seeing them live is probably the best way to appreciate the magnetism they undoubtedly have. I've seen Xiu Xiu casually dismissed in reviews on grounds of 'weirdness'. And yes, there can be some surprising and unusual moments in their music, but you soon come to realise there's nothing random about those crashing cymbals, or interjections of noise. It's all been crafted delicately together to form a powerful undercurrent; an unstoppable barrage of melodies that suck you in, wrenching at your gut, and all the while Stewart's lyrics, bizarre and startling at each turn, weave and float on top. They finish tonight's set with the magnificent 'I Love The Valley OH!', probably the closest thing they've got to a "hit single". As Stewart and the crowd roar out the infamous "OH!" of the title, I realize that (and it's completely clichéd) there's no easy way to put into words how a band like Xiu Xiu can make you feel. With those infamously unflinching lyrics, agonizingly catchy guitar riffs and drums that thump like a heartbeat, they were never going to be everyone's cup of tea, but that doesn't stop them being the most brilliant, surprising, and unforgettable band of the last ten years.

Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It

Mike Hadreas’ first album as Perfume Genius was ten short songs of pain, whispered out in his trademark delicate voice and recorded in his mum’s house without any particular intention to be released, it’s intimate in a way that can be almost difficult to hear at times. Hadreas himself is a shy, almost damaged seeming character, singing of awful things with a smile and a shaking voice, over a gentle piano. ‘Put Your Back N 2 It’ does not show much deviation from this effective formula, even using a couple of re-recorded demos from before ‘Learning’, the beautiful piano arpeggios and hushed vocals remain.

Hadreas’ words seem to be precisely shaped from an almost exquisite hurt, but they’re never complicated, no overwrought metaphors or vivid descriptions, instead, his words almost tumble out, and seem obvious once they’re said – the sign of a true lyrical talent. The second track, ‘Normal Song’ opens with an uncomplicated line that somehow manages to communicate a whole lot more; “hold my hand, I am afraid” he asks plaintively. It’s not all doom and gloom though; often what makes these songs seem so upsetting is the glimmer of hope they describe. For example, on ‘Dark Parts’ (written as a present for his mum) he promises “I will take the dark part of your heart into my heart”. This album also shows a little more instrumental variety than ‘Learning’; a dark bass riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Twin Peaks soundtrack opens ‘Floating Spit’, and the gentle pounding drums on ‘Dark Parts’ add a sense of urgency, when things could otherwise have felt a little too heavy. It closes with ‘Sister Song’, the Perfume Genius version of an arena-filling anthem – a reverberating guitar picks out a melody that sounds patriotic in some strange way, with typically revealing yet mysterious lyrics, and a sense of anticipation.

Bands like Snow Patrol and singers like Adele are often lauded for the ability their songs have to induce emotion (…and how well their songs go with sad montages on the TV). But true heartbreak, true grief – almost at the point where it seems cathartic, wretched and destructive – is to be found in this album.....

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